IF YOU ARE JUST TUNING IN TO THE MEDIA FRENZY: After X-Corp's thrust into the media spot light, X-Man Joseph snapped and assaulted colleague Xorn. It turned out Joseph was really the thought dead adversary of the X-Men, Proteus. Joseph, unsure of himself and his future with X-Corp, left with his on/off-again girlfriend, Blink of the Exiles. Now, the remaining members of X-Corp have set out to save the life of Xorn...at any cost.

"We're coming in over Beijing," Diode said as the Seraphim and her other occupants, Archangel, Psylocke, Pyro, and Maggott began to rapidly descend. There was a slight sound of escaping air as the pressure began to return to normal.

"How far until we get to this Feng Tu installation?" Pyro asked.

"Couple miles," Archangel said as he clenched the handles of the jet's steering a bit tighter. He never thought losing a teammate would be so frightening. The pressure was on.

"What are we gonna do, exactly?" Maggott asked.

"We'll ask nicely for the information regarding Xorn's brain," Archangel began. "And if they don't comply..."

"We'll get it anyway," Psylocke finished for her fiance.

As the Seraphim began to decelerate and hover towards the ground of the rocky terrain surrounding the small, isolated military bunker, a flash exploded to the right.

Archangel shouted as he looked out the window. The right wing of the jet was completely torn off. The Seraphim's nose dipped and flipped end over end before it crashed and exploded...

Sue Richards sat next to the unconscious Xorn and placed her hand on his bare shoulder as machines kept his heart pumping and lungs expanding and contracting to simulate breathing. She didn't know him personally, they never met face to face. The media frenzy surrounding X-Corp has been hectic, but not just for them. Their fellow superheroes have felt the impact, as well.

"Sue?" Reed asked as he slowly entered the Four Freedom's Plaza medical bay, wearing a lab coat.

Sue's eyebrows rose, "Anything?"

Reed shook his head, "I've tried everything. I tried viewing Xorn's brain by relaying the image through a microscopic dimension and then traveling through subspace." He sighed as he rubbed his eyes, "You want some coffee? Because I need some."

"That'd be nice, thanks," Sue said without looking at her husband. She focused mainly on Xorn's lifeless body. "It's weird, I never met him, and yet..."

"He's one of the newest X-Men, Sue. Heck, I remember when it was just the five. Now there are hundreds of them," Reed said. He cleared his throat, "That's not what I meant to say. Charles would be proud."

Ben Grimm hauled himself into the tiny room and grunted, "Oy...why couldn't my digestive system be made of rock? That's the last time I eat Hot Pockets."

"Take some Pepto," Reed smirked.

"Gee, Stretch," Thing began, "thanks for the scientific insight. No kiddin'."

Suddenly, a security alarm blared throughout the building. Reed immediately stood up and ran for the elevator that would take him to his lab, "Sue, get Franklin and Victoria!"

Invisible Woman immediately darted for the door and ran in the opposite direction, "Ben, get Johnny!"

Thing was about to run off, but the comatose Xorn caught his eye, "Waitaminute...who's gonna watch this guy?"

"Mr. Shorn Dai-Chi is now in our custody," a man with a thick Chinese accent said. Thing whipped around and saw dozens of armed men in black jumpsuits. They had Chinese markings along their chests. Ben couldn't read it, but he could tell it meant some kind of authoritative position these men held. The one who spoke had a red beret on.

"How'd you get in here?" Thing asked.

"We froze time everywhere in the building but this room," red beret said.

"How in the name of Aunt Petunia did you do that?" Ben asked.

Red beret smiled, "China has some of the most brilliant minds in the world. Reed Richards is but one. Don't turn this into a scene. Just step aside, Mr. Grimm. The Chinese government is here to clean up our mess."

"Wait just a second, pal," Thing said as he walked up to the red beret, who sighed.

"Mr. Grimm, please. We've allowed this facade to go on long enough," he said. "Xorn must be taken home."

"An' go back to imprisoning him?" Thing asked. "Come on, it's been all over the news about what the guy went through!" Ben growled as he grabbed onto red beret and threw him into the guards behind him. "Take a hike, Crouching Lizard!"

The men all grunted as they felt uncomfortable. A strange rippling in the air signified that time had resumed.

<"Men, to arms!"> red beret shouted in Mandarin. The guardsmen were up in an instant. Suddenly, the area became unnaturally hot as a bright hail of fire came upon them in the form of the Human Torch.

"I didn't know Wong's Wok delivered sweet and sour chicken with armed guards!" Johnny smirked as he tossed a barrage of fireballs at the guards' feet, causing a wall of flame to surround them.

"Cripes, Torch!" Thing yelled. "Yer gonna cause the sprinkler system to activate!"

Johnny descended to the floor as he reverted back into human form, "I got it handled."

There was a bing at the elevator as Reed walked out with his hands behind his head. Behind him were three Chinese government agents armed with plasma rifles. Reed's eyes widened as he saw the guards surrounded by Human Torch's fire wall.

"Johnny, put those flames out!" Reed shouted. "NOW!"

Johnny never heard Reed shout like that, so he quickly caused the flames to disperse. Reed breathed through his nose calmly, "Ben...step aside."

Thing appeared to be confused, "Reed, what's--"

"They've got Franklin and Victoria in a null-field in the Negative Zone," Reed said finally. His tone became lower, "And Sue."

Johnny's eyes lit up, "Well, let's get 'em out!"

Reed shook his head, "No...Johnny, please...the null-field won't last. And without knowing their proper coordinates, we wouldn't be able to find them in time." He sighed, "We have to give them Xorn."

Ben swore under his breath as he backed out of the medical bay and allowed the guards to pass. They promptly wheeled the cot out and down the hall to the elevator.

The three members of the Fantastic Four looked on somberly. Suddenly, a crackle of lightning exploded just in front of them. When the light died down, Invisible Woman was crouched down in a little ball, grasping onto her two children with all her might.

"Sue!" Reed called out in joy, but also trying to remain calm.

Sue's eyes opened as she let her shield down. She held Victoria to her bosom as Reed hugged her and kissed her on the forehead.

"Waw!" Franklin shouted. "Can we go again!?" Reed kneeled down as Franklin jumped into his arms.

Mr. Fantastic sighed, "No, son. I imagine not."

"What do we do now?" Thing barked. "Just let X-Corp walk into hell for no reason?"

"Johnny?" Reed said as he looked up. Johnny nodded as he ran over to a communication terminal located in the medical bay. He typed in a few commands and passwords and waited as the scratchy, blaring noise of radio waves flooded his ears.

Human Torch shook his head, "I'm not getting anything from the Seraphim."

Feng Tu.

The sound of metal creaking and compressing, and then...slurping came about as Eany and Meany managed to chomp their way through the wrecked jet. The flames suddenly died down as a cloud of black smoke rose from the opening.

A sudden burst of electrical energy blew the hatch clean off the body of the jet as Diode emerged with black soot over her face. She coughed, "Hrm...I feel like I'm oppressed by communism already! Yeah, well...same to you, China!!"

As she slid down the hatch in her torn business attire, pieces of the microthin armor began to show through. Next to crawl out of the hatch was Archangel, who had a cut above his nose. He stopped for a moment and hauled Psylocke up and allowed her to slide down first. Once Archangel got his wings freed, he flew out and landed next to the two ladies.

Maggott was next. He ran up to his two slugs, Eany and Meany, as they affectionately jumped on him as a pair of dogs would, "Ag, way to go, gels!"

Pyro was the last to come out of the totaled Seraphim as he coughed, "This concludes our 'How to Survive a Violent Plane Crash Twice In a Week' documentary." As the black smoke caused his eyes to sting, he wheezed, "You know...I think I'm going to quit smoking for real after this."

John jumped down and met up with the other four remaining board members.

Archangel squinted his eyes as his face became grim, "They're coming."

Psylocke pressed up against her temple, "Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. Infantry. Artillery. Tanks. It's an entire army."

"Any insightful visions of the future?" Pyro asked the recently precognitive Psylocke.

Psylocke kept breathing steadily as she looked intensely at Pyro, "Just a lot of fire."

Eany and Meany were busily chomping away at a scrap piece of metal that fell off of the Seraphim's frame. Maggott picked up the metal object and handed it to Psylocke, "Here."

Psylocke tore a piece of her sleeve off and wrapped it around the hilt. It was a crude katana. It would have to do. Psylocke twirled it around as she eyed Maggott suspiciously, "Thanks."

"Um...am I the only one who's beginning to rethink this whole mission?" Diode asked jittery. "We're all gonna die."

"No, we're not," Archangel said as the rumbling became louder and shook the land. "Five has always been more than enough to do anything."

Maggott looked over the mountain ridge and saw a tiny flash. And another. It repeated many times. He smiled, "The paparazzi's here, believe it or not."

"God...," Diode said. "How do they keep finding us?"

"And why is that a good thing?" Pyro grumbled in response to Maggott's widening grin as he snapped his fingers and fire sparked and formed around his hands.

"I was counting on it," Warren said as he glared out towards the mountain range. "It gives us a reason to fight with all we've got. They have evidence of Feng Tu shooting first. Not to mention that with our comm link down...we'll get some help once this makes the live news all over the world."

Psylocke thrust her katana forward, "So, strike a pose, everyone. Let our star power compensate for our lack of...experience in fighting a bloody army."

"I'll draw their fire away," Warren said to the team. "Psylocke, fight hand to hand as much as you can and attack as many as you can psionically. Maggott, do what you can. Diode, cover them both. Pyro, you take out the tanks and artillery. I'll help out where ever I can."

Diode sighed as she hid her fear with her comedic tendencies, "Here we go X-Corp, here we go!" She clapped her hands and continued her cheer, "S-C-R-E-W-E-D! But we don't care! Er...that didn't rhyme. Goooooooooo X-Corp! WOOO!!!"

As the sound of marching and tanks rolling forward continued, the five mutants calmly waited for the inevitable. There were five tanks. They stopped just in front of a thirty foot radius all around them. The ground soldiers ran in through the gaps between the tanks and surrounded them fully, cocking their rifles.

The cannons on the tanks lowered to the level of the mutants' heads.

"Get ready," Psylocke said within a psi-web.

"Betsy, let's flash our boobs on three!" Diode shouted.

"No! Focus, Roni," Psylocke responded. "You're up, Pyro."

John Allerdyce smiled as he stared death in the face as he thrust his hands in front of him, the fire reaching out like a giant squid as it strangled the tanks, causing them to explode before they could fire a shell off.

Reacting with quickness, Archangel took to the skies just before the soldiers opened fire on the rest of his team. The soldiers aimed high and opened fire. Archangel flapped his wings like a madman as he swerved and twirled in midair, avoiding the barrage of bullets.

Maggott hurled Eany and Meany, who both curled up in midair, as they mimicked a boomerang of sorts, crashing into multiple soldiers and knocking them over as the wind was knocked out of them. By now, the soldiers have turned their fire on the earhtly-bound mutants.

"Scatter! Find cover!" Psylocke shouted with her mind. She mercilessly leapt into the fray, risking death, she jabbed her katana into the heart of a ranking officer, causing distress in the lesser-ranked soldiers. She took them out with a psi-blast and proceeded to target the other officers.

Diode and Pyro dove for cover behind the Seraphim wreckage as Maggott took a bullet to his chest.

"Argh...shit," Japheth spat as he tripped and fell on his knee. He gripped his chest as he wrenched the bullet out. His hide was tougher in his bulked up form, but the wound still hurt. Eany and Meany retaliated as they burrowed underground and chowed down on helpless soldiers unaware of them. As soldiers began to shoot at the ground to kill the little monsters, Maggott grabbed three soldiers at a time in his massive hands and slammed them into the ground or into each other.

A whiz of electrical energy sparked past Maggott's ear and struck two soldiers behind him. He looked over at the Seraphim and saw Diode give him the thumb's up.

Pyro continued to control a the massive squid made of fire. He concentrated the oxygen around it even more to ignite the creature further and increase its size. The squid slapped its tentacles against the rocky land, singeing a multitude of soldiers at once.

Archangel systematically swooped in and dive bombed on any stragglers who were separated from their units.

Psylocke's heel caught the chin of a soldier as he went into spasm. The rifle shot out and hit his own men. Psylocke tucked and rolled as she cleaved her katana through the arm of another soldier.

She breathed slowly as she twirled her sword back behind her. Sweat and blood dripped off of her flawless face as she shook her head, "This...can't be how it happens."

As Archangel grabbed a discarded rocket launcher, he fired into the mass. Suddenly, there was a sharp sting in the back of Archangel's throat. He gagged as he coughed up blood.

"WARREN!" Psylocke shouted. As she plunged her psi-blade into the cranium of the assailant. Psylocke rushed up to Archangel, who had a bullet in his neck, lodged in his spine. "Oh my God!" Her eyes became white as she manifested psi-katanas in each hand. "This can't be how it happens!!" she shouted.

Warren looked up at his fiance with bloodshot eyes, wide with horror as her stomach exploded and sprayed blood everywhere.

Maggott took a barrage of bullets throughout his body and eventually slumped over on the battlefield.

Pyro took a hit in the shoulder and was forced to dissipate his fire creature. A second shot hit him in the chest.

"NO!" Diode shouted before she was shot many times in the back.

The smoke cleared as the soldiers regrouped. A solitary figure suddenly approached the team of soldiers. A bald Asian man wearing a white version of the Chinese military fatigues. He had a small goatee. He observed the bodies of X-Corp and smiled.

He was Feng Tu, the namesake of the military installation.

With a flinch, Archangel, Psylocke, Maggott, Pyro, and Diode suddenly jerked to life. Feng Tu could animate dead tissue to the point where it could be considered alive. The five mutants slowly walked towards the installation as the man in white guided their zombie-like movements into a whole new world...

The Plaza.

"What are we gonna do now?" Thing asked as he and the rest of the Fan Four watched the news as it unfolded on television.

Mr. Fantastic stroked his chin, "We're going to save them."

"Reed, come on!" Human Torch complained. "We already lost Xorn and you saw what happened to X-Corp when they tried to break into that installation."

"We need to contact Cyclops's X-Men," Invisible Woman suggested. "At least to back us up."

"I can help," a squeaky Franklin chimed in as he hobbled in, dressed in a FF uniform, one of his father's extras. It was a bit big on him. He tripped and fell on the floor.

Sue picked up her son and dusted off his rear, "Reed?"

"We're going," Reed said. He looked at Ben, "Is it alright if Alicia babysits Vicky and Franklin?"

"Babysitter? Come on, dad!" Franklin whined. "I'm almost old enough to watch PG movies!"

"Franklin...," Reed said as his tone became serious. Franklin cowered a bit. "Your uncles, mommy, and I need to rescue our friends. We can't do that if we have to worry about you and your sister, too."

Franklin appeared to pout, but he scratched his head and nodded, responding, "Okay."

As Johnny, Sue, and Reed left for the hangar to their modified hovercraft, Ben stayed behind and pointed one of his huge, rocky fingers, "Don't pull any crap with your new Auntie."

"...I'm gonna have a new auntie?" Franklin asked as his eyes lit up. Alicia walked into the room with her walking stick. She felt the air and touched Ben's face.

Ben smiled, "Eventually. Yer the man of the house, now, Frank." Thing turned around and walked off after kissing his fiance.

"Wanna play video games?" Franklin asked.

Alicia smiled, "Uh..."

Feng Tu stood in an elevator shaft as he and two other guards descended to the base level of the military installation, located 100 meters underground. When the doors slid open and the air pressurizer eased the tension on their sinuses, Feng Tu walked out onto a catwalk. The two armed guards took positions on either side of the elevator.

Tu leaned against the railing and looked down at five exam tables, where men dressed in lab coats and masks took hand-held lasers to the wounds of the five mutants who laid upon the bloodstained tables.

Archangel's wings were treated with a cleanser as his muscles were cleared up of any lactic acids through an electrical shock treatment with various wires hooked up to his bare body. The bullet wound in his neck has been healed.

Maggott's normal human form was basked under an ultraviolet fluorescent light to speed up the regeneration of skin for his wounds. Eany and Meany were rendered in a drowsy state since their template was in a stupor.

Pyro and Diode, placed right next to each other, had similar injuries, so they were easily healed. Chemicals were injected into them to enhance control over their x-genes.

The doctors continued with the blue lasers as they sealed the wounds and regenerated the flesh just as it had been before with Psylocke...with a minor noticeable difference.

Suddenly, a voice spoke on the loudspeaker, <"Um, I believe we have some kind of reaction here...">

Feng Tu walked over to an intercom and asked, <"What is it?">

<"It's Psylocke, sir. I think we released some kind of hormonal enzyme with the chemicals we injected to enhance performance...her hair turned purple, sir.">

Feng Tu simply smiled, <"So? Hair color is a minor thing when it comes to the aesthetics of super soldiers. I want these five mutants in top condition by the end of the day."> He looked over as a man in an iron mask walked up to him, dressed in a black leather uniform.

It was Xorn. He leaned on the railing next to Feng Tu and observed his friends as they were patched up. <"You'll keep your promise?"> he asked.

The military man chuckled, <"They might be considered traitors now. Working for a foreign government? Their image will be ruined. But that doesn't matter, does it, Shorn? You're home.">

<"I was told X-Corp would be treated and then released,"> Xorn said as he turned his head, the glowing orbs of his eyeslots gazing upon the face of Feng Tu. <"I'm what you wanted. For China.">

<"Times have been tough, my friend,"> Feng Tu sighed. <"Ever since the death of our national hero during the Fa Clinic incident...we need all the help we can get.">

<"But I was the reserve for Collective Man,"> Xorn said. <"You told me my true purpose and I accept it. You are a lunatic. You killed my parents and stripped me of my identity. You locked me up to 'protect' my advanced mind and power. But...why do you need my friends, as well?">

<"It's simple, Mr. Dai-Chi,"> Feng Tu said. <"Mutants like us are not accepted it, and it's worse here. My scientists fixed your brain...now you owe me a favor.">

Xorn sighed and regretfully responded, <"China will have it's own Big Hero Six by sunrise.">

To be continued...