As the battle in the Museum is about to resume, Dr. Grey comes around the corner, having felt the building shake from all the fighting. Nemesis takes the initiative and pounces on the hapless scientist, slitting her throat and telling the heroes they can either save the civilian, or pursue her instead. She then leaves the scene.
Faced with the choice, the heroes opt to save Dr. Grey. Only Crucible gives chase to his enemy, but she is too fast, and as he chases her out into the street, he sees her flying away over the rooftops until she is out of sight.
When Dr. Grey is revived, she panics at the assembled sight of a mad scientist, a werewolf, a ghost, a demon, and a fiery elemental. She flees the scene and the heroes opt to let her go, as she is now fully healed. As the heroes prepare to leave before the police show up, Malpractice spots a flashing red light in the rubble where Nemesis had crashed into the wall. They investigate and find the Gadget, which their foe had dropped in all the mayhem!
Taking it with them, they run back out into the street, where Frenchie picks them up in the Mooncopter, and they head back across town.
Along the way, they take a closer look at the Gadget, and realize that it is filled with readings. As Fenris tinkers with it, it becomes clear that it has locked onto something over the river, in Queens. Thinking it may be the young Russian girl, they change course and drop down into a quiet, working-class neighborhood. With the signal taking them to a particular house, they read the name on the mailbox- Strucker. Phantasm then uses her ghostly form to examine the interior. A sleeping family is inside, a middle aged couple in one bedroom, and a teenage girl in another. The girl is not Ilyana Rasputin.
After discussing the likelihood that Nemesis knows about this location, the heroes decide to stake the place out, and Frenchie takes off. Very early the next morning, the two adults separately leave for work. Shortly after, another teenage girl comes to the house and is let in by her friend. The new arrival appears to be wearing a catholic school uniform- she is skipping her summer school classes to hang out!
Phantasm then takes her illusory form of Professor Aliyah Adin, so that she might gain entry and try to get more information about the girl with the magical aura. As she is walking down the sidewalk, she sees Jean Grey coming from the opposite direction. As Phantasm approaches, Dr. Grey says, ‘good morning,’ not seeming to recognize her colleague from the museum. Dr. Grey goes up to the front door, and is greeted by the magic teenager. It seems that there was supposed to be a ‘college interview’ going on. Phantasm concludes that this is not the real Jean Grey, and mentally warns her friends.
Phantasm enters, and warns the girls that they are in danger, the darker haired girl with the aura says Dr. Grey was supposed to be here to do an interview for her application to City College. They say they are going to call the police. At that point, Crucible, who had already entered through the patio doors at the back, comes into the living room in his orichalcum form, telling them to leave and scaring the girls further, who then flee out the back.
'Dr. Grey' looks at him and says “Really? You really want to do this here, right now?” Fighting immediately commences, and the heroes realize they are fighting the Mysterious Sniper when she drops her disguise and they see her true, blue-skinned and flaming red-haired form. Sabanion and Fenris quickly enter from the street and all hell breaks loose. Between plasma pistol blasts and psychic attacks and further mayhem, the Sniper is being quickly pummeled. Nemesis then makes her appearance, smashing through the outside wall of the living room and entering the fray. Crucible then blasts the area with his fiery breath, immediately starting the house on fire.
The battle rages on and the building is structurally compromised. The badly beaten Sniper flees the scene, and is pursued by Phantasm, but eventually escapes the range of the ghost’s psychic attacks. Nemesis continues to battle Crucible, Fenris, Malpractice and Sabanion one-versus-four. She drops Fenris, and is working on Sabanion when Crucible lands a devastating shot, dropping her instead.
As the building collapses on them, Malpractice and Sabanion are able to elude the debris, but as Crucible tries to grab the fallen Fenris he cannot get out in time, and instead braces himself against the falling rubble while standing over his friend. He then tosses the burning rubble aside and pulls Fenris to safety.
When they survey the scene, Phantasm can no longer detect the mental presence of either the magical girl, or Nemesis. The only other mental presence of note is the unconscious presence of the schoolgirl, who they find lying unconscious in the back alley.
Now back in their ‘human’ forms, they rouse the girl. She tells them her name is Gwen, and that she and her friend were jumped in the alley by goons in a van, who were dressed in strange (and really tacky) uniforms. Wanda is gone. They also learn from her that Wanda is the foster daughter of the Struckers, and that she has a brother, though Gwen has never met him, as he was placed with a different family.
Not even the Gadget can track Wanda for some reason, and as the heroes leave yet another devastated scene, they are left with many questions. Where is the Russian girl? Who is this new girl with the magical aura and what is her connection to Ilyana? How did Nemesis escape the collapsed building?
They had back to the Spector Mansion to rest, regroup, and plan their next move…
(published July 5, 2014)
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