Trinity had been lifted up to the pods by one of Kevin's flying creations.

She had the knife tight in hand.

Using her hand to steady herself against the pod, she didn't notice the drain. Whether it was true it didn't affect her, or whether it was just too subtle, who knew?

She was at one of the Professors' pods.... She thought it might be the one she'd met; he looked familiar.

Trinity looked at the knife, and then she inserted it into one of the seams of the pod. It cut into it like it was butter.

She cut along the whole length of the pod, which was about 7 feet.

Air came into it, and the Professor began to blink and stir.

Trinity sliced along the top and bottom of it too, till it began to open.

Kevin was watching, and one of his flying figures took hold of Xavier and pulled him out of the gap.

Trinity shut it again, hoping no one would notice it was empty.

"Shh." She motioned at Xavier, who was looking at her strangely.

Kevin lowered him, trying to stay out of sight of the three.

Shine was somehow still talking. He only caught half of what she was saying, going on about Shakespeare and stuff.

Hank appeared at some point, but he didn't have much time to think of that.

Trinity moved to the next pod, which contained Jean--the older Jean, it looked like. They all seemed to be across from their counter part.

It was impossible to hurry this process as much as she'd have liked. It took her about a minute and half even as she had the hang of it more, and Shine could only keep them talking for about 5 minutes or so at most.

Kevin plucked Jean out, and Trinity moved to the next pod. This one had Psylocke.

Trinity was not left alone to just continue this however.

Out of the ceiling came something like a bat winged shadow. Or perhaps that's literally what it was.

It landed on the pods and gnashed its teeth at her.

It didn't make much sound. No one else seemed to hear it.

Trinity slid back, her feet coming dangerously close to sliding off the machine's arm.

The creature came at her.

Trinity twisted her hand, and the knife in her hand suddenly turned into a kind of staff with a heavy end.

She swung it and knocked the creature back, and it flew off, hissing at her angrily.

Trinity had no time to think about how bizarre this whole situation was getting.

She jabbed the staff, which seemed to become like a spear, into the pod and just jacked the lid off it.... That was way faster.

Kevin wasn't sure what was going on up there, but he got Psylocke out.

The arms of the machine that were connected to those pods were now starting to go dim.

Trinity crept to the next arm.

At this unfortunate moment, Time Broker finally noticed that something was off.

"Hold up," he said, cutting off Shine and the others. "What is this?"

He looked upward. "Why...it's that little human. She wasn't even on our list! What is she doing up there?"

"She's freeing the telepaths!" Sinister gave a howl of rage. "Did no one stop her?!"

Mimic, recovering from when Wally had flung him off, flew up and at Trinity.

She almost fell off the machine, but she thrust her spear at him. "Get--get back!"

"For a human, she's pretty brave," Time Broker noted. "Almost a waste not to have powers."

"You're blind," Shine said. "She has as much power as anyone else ever needs."

"You set this up," Time Broker said. "You were distracting us.... Huh, rather conniving."

"Not my fault if you fell for it," Shine said impudently.

Which might not have been the smartest thing to do.

In anger, Sinister plucked something off his belt that looked like a bomb and threw it at her.

Hank moved to snatch Shine out of the way as it exploded.

"I believe our parley is over, Madame," he said.

"I can't fight them," Shine said. "I swore not to till this fight was over."

"Why would you make such a foolish promise?!" Hank said.

"So they would give you back," Shine said. "I knew they'd have to have some leverage."

"Mrs. West, I am not worth making such a reckless agreement!" Hank protested.

"It's all right, Hank. I'm just one person," Shine said.

"Oy vey..." Hank muttered. "God help us."

"God has helped us," Shine said.

Mimic grabbed Trinity's spear. "Nice try, kid," he said, robotically.

Trinity stared at him.

Then she pushed forward suddenly.

The spear went into Mimic's chest, though it didn't draw blood, just like the sword didn't. Instead he just gasped and his eyes flashed light.

Then he looked around. "What am I doing?"

"Ah!" Trinity lost her balance and fell.

Kevin caught her with one of his creations.

Mimic fell to the ground.

"I think this battle just turned," Shine said.

"No!" Sinister said.

"Get those telepaths back!" Time Broker said. 

Professor X was sitting up. "Jean? Are you awake?"

Jean was stirring. "I think so, Professor.... I feel as if I've been asleep for weeks and weeks.... Where are we?"

"Some realm outside Time, I think," the Professor said. "It looks like the Astral Realm.... I'm not sure what's happened, but I know Apocalypse is behind it. Some great evil is afoot. We must not be recaptured."

Jean nodded, and she raised her hands and slammed aside one of the riders who was coming at them.

Psylocke, sitting up, formed her lash in her hand and sliced through another one.

"Isn't this how you lost last time?" Sinister asked Apocalypse.

"Quiet." Apocalypse raised his hands to blast energy at Kevin.

Kevin made a sort of shield, but he still went hurtling back.

Trinity fell the last few feet to the ground, but she was okay.

* * *

Morph, in Eagle form, attacked the dinosaurs who were up against the other X-men.

Emma also shoved aside one.

Then she ran to the incubation tubes and started breaking them, using her diamond form.

Inside them Storm, Beast, Iceman, Nightcrawler, and Shadowcat were all contained. She also found the older Cyclops. And last of all, their Wolverine.

Emma wasn't looking forward to that, but she broke that one also.

Wolverine snapped awake and then jumped up, claws out, and put them right to her throat.

Good thing she was still in diamond form.

"Frost!" he cried. "I might have known! What are you doing?"

"Saving you, you fool!" Emma said, trying to back up.

Scott was helping the others get up. 

"Scott? What's going on?" Shadowcat was disoriented.

"Dude, where are we?" Iceman said. "This place looks...like some weird, tripped out dream."

"Are we in another dimension?" Hank mused.

"It's a long story, but we're fighting Apocalypse, Sinister, and this other person named The Time Broker, a lot of people we know are being mind controlled, and the others are just evil, and we don't have a lot of time to stop the dimensions from merging like a broken zipper," Scott said. "Also Jean and the Professor are being kept in that machine thing there."

"What?" The older Cyclops said. "Which Jean?--and are you the other me?"

"Yes, and both of them," Scott said.

"Uh...right..." Shadowcat said.

"Was I supposed to understand that?" Nightcrawler asked.

"Also--" Scott looked up and saw Wolverine. "Logan, let her go. She's with us. It's okay."

"What?" Logan snapped.

"You heard him," Emma said.

Wolverine had grabbed her arm so she couldn't get away from him, and she tugged at it. "Now let go of me."

"I don't get it," Wolverine said. "I thought we settled that--"

"There's Rogue!" Storm pointed. "And Forge and...Domino? She's still with us?"

"Are they fighting dinosaurs?" Iceman asked.

"Vhy is there a giant eagle?" Nightcrawler asked.

The eagle caught up the T-Rex and sent it sprawling.

Then it shifted back into Morph, who was panting. "Whew...that was hard..."

"Morph?!" Storm cried. "You're alive?"

"Hey!" Morph waved. "It's a long story."

"Scott," Emma said, ignoring Wolverine now, "we have to free the rest of the telepaths now, while the machine is weaker, or it'll get us all.... Now that some of them are out, I can sense it more clearly.... It's drawing us all towards it.... We'll feel the effects soon if we don't already."

"Okay, fine," Scott said. "All of you can fight, right?"

"Uh..." Iceman froze some of his arm. "Looks like it."

"Then get up there, and we're getting all of them out," Scott said. "Even if it's someone you don't like, I don't care. We have probably two minutes tops, maybe less. Morph, you'll help."

"Yeah, I'll try to keep the baddies from stopping you," Morph said. "And look...there's more."

The ceiling was opening and letting in more monsters...some defied description.

"This is like one long acid trip that I didn't take because drugs don't affect me," Morph said.

"Huh?" Shadowcat said.

"Move," Scott said. "Logan, stop playing bad cop and get up there."

Logan glanced at him strangely, but then he sullenly dropped Emma. "Fine, but I want an answer later."

"If we live through this, I'll give you one," Emma said.

Iceman took Shadowcat and ran up to the machine, and Logan started hacking the pods open with his claws.

Shadowcat phased some more people out, though the drain made it hard for her to do this, and Iceman actually had to back her up or she'd have fallen.

Storm sent winds to help knock away the creatures that were coming out of the abyss.

Nightcrawler poofed up, and finding he couldn't break into the pods without help, he poofed down to Kevin and Trinity and asked them if they knew how.

"Get me back up there." Trinity held up her weapon. "I got this."

"Very vell, miss." Nightcrawler took her up.

Time Broker, Apocalypse and Sinister, however, realized that they were slowly starting to lose this battle.

Their reinforcements were running low, especially against a united front of two X-men teams, now being backed by telepaths.

"How did this happen?" Sinister asked.

Shine was standing a little off, leaning on her sword. "Funny how that worked out, huh?" she said. "A shame I can't fight the three of you right now. Then you'd really feel the burn, huh?"

"Stop mocking us," Sinister said.

"But it's so easy," Shine said. "I mean, this is falling apart on you."

"Oh, you think you've outwitted us!" Time Broker said. "Well, think again.... We still have one more trick.... The machine is going to be useless in a moment, so there's no need for this orb anymore."

"Excuse me?" Shine said.

Time Broker snapped his fingers. "So how will you like open exposure to the Abyss?"

The orb's walls suddenly pulled back entirely.

Showing only a blackness, as before, that seemed to go on forever---but horrifyingly, it was alive in a way. Shapes were moving in and out of it, coming into view.

It became clear that the reason you couldn't make them out till they got close was that there was just no light in the Abyss itself--and once they came into the light, you thought it might be better that way. They were ugly as all get out, as Older Rogue put it when she saw them.

Gambit threw a few more cards but shook his head. "Dis not look good, Chere."

"Well, we got this far," she said.

Some creature with long horns lunged at them.

She grabbed it by its horns and flung it away with effort. "I feel tired though.... I felt fine before..."

The whole landscape began to change. The orb vanished from under them, leaving them standing only on the flat, hard surface.

The plants were gone. The machine was gone, just as the last telepath had been snatched out of it.

The void was surrounding them on all sides, and they were in a small ring of actual solid ground and order.

Even the other villains were beginning to look around, aghast, and stopped their fighting.

"If we can't use you one way, then we'll use you another," Time Broker shouted, now angry for the first time. "You remember that our friends here devour people to bring them here! Well, perhaps the Abyss can just feed on all of you now. That's as good as the Synergy, and even better--we don't have to worry about you anymore at all."

There was an answer of howls and snarls from...the Abyss?

"That's going to give me nightmares," Alt Nightcrawler said to Trinity. "Who are you, by the vay?"

"I'm Trinity," Trinity said.

She looked up. "I don't know...they don't seem so tough to me." Her hands were shaking, but she held up her weapon. "You can't let it scare you. Shine's always telling us we have more authority...so..."

She stood up.

"Get away from us!" she shouted up at the blackness and the growls of the creatures in it.

Shine nodded and raised her sword too.

"I never said I wouldn't fight that." She shrugged. "So I guess there's a loophole."

The others teammates around, at the least the ones who knew what was going on, nodded at each other.

Mystique, who was still a dragon, looked up at the void and shot fire at it.

Morph turned into a giant knight with a huge sword and swung upward.

Storm threw lightning.

Logan slashed into one of the monsters that was at ground level.

Kitty phased around a few more and helped Colossus and Ryan duck also. Colossus tripped one.

Scott blasted at them too.

Everyone else threw whatever they had available, even if it didn't seem like it'd work.

Wally came and grabbed Shine's shoulder.

The light suddenly got so much brighter.

It seemed to encase them all like some kind of protective armor, looming overhead and sealing off the abyss like a huge shield.

No one was sure what was happening.

https://youtu.be/vf5v2wuzUFk

All in one moment, it seemed like the Abyss knew it was beaten.

With some shrieks of anger, the creatures all retreated into it, and the blackness itself seemed to back up.

Light became visible inside the void for the first time...starlight or perhaps just the light of some far off, more friendly beings that we no longer obscured from them.

No one tried to understand it too hard. They'd all about tapped out on that.

Seeing even this had failed, the three ringleaders all looked around.

"It's over," Apocalypse said, with an air of surprised resignation.

"It can't be over!" Sinister hissed.

"No!" some of the other villains cried.

Selene raised her hands.

Some of the telepaths--no doubt ones she'd infected with her magic, suddenly rose up like puppets.

Empath, who'd been forgotten about all this time because he wasn't doing anything, raised his hands.

Rage seemed to fill them.

Among the ones affected were the Alt Jean, and The Psylocke that the older X-men knew, as well as Cable...not really a surprise there.

All of them began to unleash a psionic attack that almost melted the brains of the people who could feel it.

Emma turned into diamond hastily.

Xavier was struggling to block it. "Combined it's too much!" he said. "They'll make us all fall into a coma! What is this madness? Even their own people will be affected by it. Are they really this desperate?"

"It looks like it," Emma said. She shuddered. "We have to stop them."

"I can't get through," Xavier said.

The older Jean was also battling. "Neither can I," she said. "Perhaps if all of us were trying together."

The younger Psylocke looked at them. She wasn't blocking this out very successfully, but she nodded. "Together," she said.

"Well, here goes nothing," Emma muttered.

She resumed her regular form and pushed back.

The others all joined in.

At first, with Selene and Empath helping them, it didn't seem like it was making that much effect on the three controlled telepaths.

Jean, in particular, was pretty much invincible.

Ryan, covering his head, looked up. Selene was now standing very close to him. She didn't even notice he was there.

It was hard to think, but he pushed himself up with difficulty and stuck out his tongue, then he spat.

Venom hit Selene right in the neck.

She looked down at him in shock.

Then she fell back.

Some of her hold on the telepaths was broken.

Cable seemed to start to come out of it.

The others pushed harder.

Some of the telepaths no one knew joined them, now seeing what was going on.

Cable suddenly put his hand to his head and fell to the ground.

Then Psylocke did, hugging her chest.

Jean held out the longest. She seemed even more angry than them.

"She's not backing down," Xavier worried. "Jean is stronger than all of us put together, I'm afraid. If she really applies herself without restraint..."

Emma pursed her lips. "Perhaps if we could get her to shift her focus."

She remembered Wally's plan to defeat Exodus.

"How so?" Alt Psylocke asked.

Emma raised up a hand and found that she could make a sort of psionic spirit form even without leaving her body...another side effect of the realm, no doubt.

And that confirmed her idea.

"I might be able to distract her," she said.

"Miss Frost, that's a very dangerous idea," Xavier said.

"I know it is," Emma said. "But of all the people here, I have the best chance... She already is suspicious of me. If I can get her to break her focus off of all of you, you might overwhelm her."

"Hurry," Psylocke said. "The others can't take this kind of attack much longer."

"You, Other Jean, help me get up there," Emma called.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Older Jean said, raising her up.

Emma formed a lash in her hand.

"Jean?" she called. "Over here! Is this all you can do?"

She swung the lash at her.

Jean caught it in one hand.

That wasn't good.

"You!" she said. Yanking it and Emma forward.

The older Jean was able to steady her so she didn't crash.

Alt Jean caught Emma by her throat. "Did you actually just try to attack me?!" she said furiously, eyes glowing with fury.

Emma had her attention all right.

She turned into diamond. "Now what will you do?" she asked.

Jean--predictably--suddenly switched to using telekinesis to try to crush her.

Emma could feel the pressure even through her diamond form--which wasn't good--

But of course, Jean's psionic force decreased with her focus being on telekinesis.

With renewed force, the others shoved at her mind, and finally they put her under.

Jean's eyes fluttered, and she fell out of the air.

Emma fell too, though the fall didn't hurt her that much.

But the force made her just about faint.

Suddenly the ground under them all cracked.

"Oh..." Time Broker said. Now he sounded afraid for the first time. "That last attack...might have been too much for this realm.... I think it's going to collapse."

"Come again?" Apocalypse said.

Shine looked at Wally. "We have to get out of here, now!" she said.

"We have to portal, then," Wally said. "It's dangerous, but we have no choice. I'll round everyone up."

He dashed away.

"Everyone, over here!" Shine said. "Hero, villain, I don't care, run for it."

Everyone came running.

The ground was shaking under them.

"Ah!" Kitty screamed as it disappeared out from under her.

Mystique plucked her up and then Colossus and carried them to Shine. Then she turned back to her usual form and fell to her knees, breathing hard.

Everyone who could carry someone was grabbing someone who couldn't run.

"Jean!" Older Scott finally saw her.

"Scott!" she called, bringing him to her. "Oh my...how long has it been?"

"Too long," he said, embracing her.

Jean seemed surprised by this show of affection at such a time, but she had no time to question it.

Alt Hank rushed to pluck up the Jean from his world, and the others grabbed Cable and Psylocke and ran.

Morph landed next to Forge. "Can I have that Talis back now?" he asked.

"Sure." Forge handed it to him. "Why?"

Morph looked.

The Time Broker and Apocalypse and Sinister were all rushing to the edge also.

The Time Broker was opening a door.

"Hey, TB," Morph called.

They paused.

Morph hurled the Talis at them, and it burst into some kind of portal, but then it dumped them right back onto the ground.

"What did you just do?" Time Broker yelled. "You fool!"

"Talis," Morph said, "keep them here. That's their new assignment."

"What?!!" Apocalypse cried.

"Fool, we can't survive here!" Sinister said. "Anyone in a body will be burnt up by exposure."

"Is that so?" Morph said. "Well, that's a real shame, isn't it? Have fun with that. Oh, here--" He grabbed Selene off the ground. "You can join them."

"What?" Selene screamed. "No! Let me go!" She struggled, but Morph threw her, and she hit the ground next to them.

Shine thrust her sword out, and a doorway opened in front of the group.

"Never mind them," she said. "They made this realm, let them stay here. Everyone else, get out! This place is collapsing in on itself."

The others all began to rush out, pulling everyone they could after them.

Selene, enraged, reached out a tendril with her mind and grabbed Shine by the foot, yanking her back.

"You won't escape either!" she snarled.

Wally was shooing the team in.

"Shine." He turned.

Apocalypse blasted him through the door.

"Insect," he said.

"Let me go!" Shine struggled to kick free. She couldn't use her sword, because she was keeping the door open with it.

"Which will it be, yourself or them?" Sinister said.

Gambit paused. He was the last one who hadn't gone in, waiting to see if everyone else was through.

"Go!" Shine yelled at him. "Don't wait--it won't stay open."

Selene yanked her again.

Gambit threw a card at her, and it exploded.

Then Selene let go of Shine abruptly.

Gambit rushing forward and pulled Shine up. She was dizzy.

"Gambit, don't. It won't stay open if I don't go last..." She said in a rush.

"Hafta be faster dan dat." Gambit ran for the door, taking her with him.

The portal began to shut already. Shine's energy was just about gone.

Gambit got within a foot and jumped the rest of the way, head first.

The portal shut just on their very heels.

All anyone heard were the yells of anger of the four people left inside it.

* * *

Light...natural light.

The group looked up.

Where was this?

It looked like the Temple...at least, where it had been...but all they saw was empty space...no city...no clouds...no towers...

"Are we in the right place?" Morph asked.

Everyone stood up.

"It's just gone," Older Storm said slowly. "Everything... Does this mean we failed?"

"Gambit?" Older Rogue was bending over him. "Gambit, talk to me."

"Stop yelling at Gambit, Chere," Gambit groaned. "Gambit already get enough of dat."

"You idiot!" Rogue hugged him. "What'd ya slow down like that for?"

"Gambit figure Shine do something stupid and heroic at de end," Gambit said.

Shine coughed and looked up. "I taste dirt... Oh...oh, thank goodness, it's because it's actually here..." 

Wally plucked her up. "Honey, are you okay? I...I didn't see that blast coming in time, so..."

"I seem to be..." Shine said. "Oh...Remy, that was plumb crazy! We both could have been stuck there forever."

"Sometime you have ta take a gamble." Gambit shrugged.

"So where are we?" Younger Kitty asked. "Experts, come on?"

"Well..." Wally slowly looked around. "I think it's the same place. Where'd all the buildings go?

Shine sleepily looked around. "Well...I think this means we succeeded," she said. "The projection is gone...by trapping them outside of time, and...we freed all the prisoners...so the Merging is over...but I see nothing is here...because we haven't gone back in time yet, so the timeline isn't flowing again...which means we all cannot stay here."

"Can you take us back?" Kurt asked.

"At the moment I couldn't take you as far as the next hill," Shine said. "But...there's no particular hurry. Can we all just rest for a while?"

"That sounds good," Trinity said. She sat down. "Look...the grass doesn't look sick anymore."

Actually, it was rather peaceful, if you didn't mind that there was no sign of civilization.

The only problem was that many people had no idea what was going on.

While the Older X-men began telling them in some detail what had happened, their Scott joined all of them.

"Scott!" Storm said. "Oh, I didn't notice you had joined us before." She hugged him. 

Jubilee did also. "And Jean," she said.

"Hey!" Rogue hugged them also. "We missed the both of ya, really."

"I missed all of you also," Older Scott surprised them by saying. "I...think I didn't understand how efficient our team was..."

"That's why ya missed us," Logan said.

"Incredibly, I may actually have missed your personality also," Old Scott said.

"And I didn't really know I was gone, but I feel as if I haven't seen you all in a long time," Older Jean said. "Whatever happened to us, you have to tell us the whole story. Why are there two mes? And two Scotts...and...a lot of all of you."

"Vanda?" Alt Nightcrawler had found her.

She was sitting up and looking dazed. "Hi...Kurt... What's going on?" She looked around. "Where's my father?"

"Unbelievably, we actually rescued him." Domino pointed.

Magneto was looking around. "It's all gone..." he said.

Alt Quicksilver stood up too. "Wow...spooky," he said.

Domino walked up to him. "Hey," she said. Then she punched him.

"What was that for?" he demanded.

"Almost destroying the world! Jackass!" Domino said. "And FYI, I quit! And I'm telling the rest of The Brotherhood about this. Don't come crawling to us whenever Daddy gets tired of you again. We're done working for you! Both of you!"

She was kind of scaring him, to be honest, so he backed away.

Alt Jean was sitting up. "Scott!" she called. "Scott? Where...?"

Scott came over. "Hello, Jean," he said.

Jean threw her arms around him. "Scott, I...I'm not sure what happened... Was it all real?"

"I think it was..." Scott patted her the sort of way people do when they're not sure how long they want you to hold on but don't want to be rude.

Emma blinked at the bright light and sat up herself.

She looked around... It was so...empty...but peaceful... So, they succeeded. They could all go home.

She glanced at Scott, and then she frowned...sadly more than anything.

Slowly she got to her feet, unsteadily, and began to walk towards the DJs.

Scott saw her get up. "Jean, can you give me a minute?" he said.

"What?" Jean had some reason to look surprised.

Scott pulled away. "Look, I'm sorry, I just--I'l be right back."

Jean gaped as he ran after Emma and took hold of her arm.

"Emma, wait."

"Scott, please, it's really not necessary to do this," Emma said.

"Don't be a fool, Emma," Scott said.

Emma stopped short.

"Me?" She turned back to look at him incredulously.

"I need a minute with Jean," Scott said. "I...have to explain. I think I owe her that much. Just, hold on... You're okay, right?"

"I'm fine, yes," Emma said, with some consternation.

"Okay then." Scott let go and went back to Jean, who watched this whole thing with even more amazement.

The rest of their team who weren't otherwise occupied saw it too.

"What is going on?" Wolverine asked, kicking a rock.

"Yeah," Alt Rogue said. "There's something y'all should probably know... You were out of it for a while. Scott kind of moved on, if y'know what I mean."

"He did what?" Alt Storm said. "You mean him and...Frost?"

"Weird, right?" Forge said. 

"It's not that weird," Domino said. "I kind of think they work, actually. And you're all not going to get hung up over the ex-villain thing, right? I mean, you did see what just happened. She's as nauseatingly noble as all of you weirdos are."

"And you're here because...?" Alt Wolverine said.

"I just helped save all your lives, idiot," Domino said.

Someone none of them knew suddenly came around one of the hills--well, one of them knew him.

"Anyone can tell me what is gon' on here?" he said, rubbing his soul patch.

"Gambit?" Wolverine said. "What are you doing around here, you rat!"

"Gambit?" Alt Rogue said. "I thought that guy was Gambit."

"He is," Forge said. "Right? Oh, this must be the other one... Wow...he's not as cool."

"Excuse you?" Alt Gambit said. "I jus' wake up with a very weird feeling and a lot of hazy memories... Either someone slipped me a mickey, or someone's been messin' with my mind. And all you X-men are here, so I'm bettin' it's de second one."

"How does 'you got your soul put into someone else's body for a while' sound?" Alt Rogue crossed her arms. "Which makes you an idiot."

"And who are you?" he asked.

"Name's Rogue, not that it matters." She looked away.

"Dat didn't explain anything," Alt Gambit said.

"We'll explain later," Alt Storm said, "if we can... I still hardly understand it myself..."

The Old Scott looked over at them. "Well, now do you believe me?" he asked. "Wasn't it all pretty much how I said it was?"

"Go gloat somewhere else, Old Guy," Wolverine said.

"Why don't I have a double?" Iceman wondered.

"Why would we need two of you?" Shadowcat wrinkled her nose.