Rachel cried out as Nathaniel plunged into her, repeatedly causing her to shake with pleasure. The only sound in the room was the mixture of their grunts and the sound of flesh pounding against flesh. She reached out with her arms, pulling him against her, into her, sinking her teeth softly into his neck. He felt himself beginning to climax, feeling the gentle motions of her own orgasm beneath him....

It was exactly fifteen minutes after they'd first met, swept up in a tidal wave of psychic energy and pent-up sexual tension.

Nathaniel rolled over onto his back, both of them panting as their worlds began to slow down. They had been so wrapped up in the sudden onslaught of passion that neither had been completely aware of their surroundings... but their world had shifted, subtly, from one realm to another.

"We're on Un-Earth," Rachel whispered, glancing at him with a mixture of embarrassment and fear. "You were incredible."

"Thanks, luv," he replied, feeling a bit sheepish himself. He reached for his clothes, which had been discarded in a messy heap at his side, but found that his trousers and shirt were gone... replaced by the green cloak and bodysuit that had appeared sporadically since the Barrier had altered him forever. "Damn it all. My clothes...."

"My costume's here, too." Rachel rose, telekinetically lifting her own colorful attire and allowing it to drift onto her lithe form. "But we have more important things to worry about -- Maybe you were distracted, but I told you we're not on the real Earth anymore. We're on the one built by Mys-Tech."

"How in the hell could they create a whole world?" He gazed about himself, seeing that they were standing in a warehouse that basically mimicked the one in which he'd first entered... but there were differences, as well. The strange apparatus that had been draining energy from Rachel Summers was gone... and there was an odd poster hanging on the wall, showing a man with strong features standing against the Mys-Tech logo. The words 'Fashioning A Better Tomorrow - One Molecule At a Time.'

"They can do anything they want, if they put their mind to it." Rachel was busy fixing her hair, but her face was taking on a new look, as well. Dark lines were appearing, making her look feral and dangerous. She noted his stare and smiled wanly. "These are Hound markings. In the world I grew up in, I was--"

"Forced to hunt other mutants? Got that much, luv." Nathaniel tapped the side of his head. "When we were shagging, I got a good glimpse into your mind."

"Same here," she replied, holding his gaze meaningfully. She saw him blush and turned away, her own heart hammering. What had happened between them? She'd never responded to any man like that... so wanton and desperate. Not even Franklin... She forced those thoughts away, using her telepathy to instead scan for any people nearby. "There's a car coming -- four people inside, three men and a woman. They're coming to investigate the rift we opened."

"Who are they? Do they work for Mys-Tech?"

"Can't tell. Psychic shields. If I push any harder, they'll know I'm looking and we'll lose the element of suprise."

"I wonder what Charlie thought happened to us...."

"Your friend's fine. A little shaken up, probably, but otherwise okay." As she spoke, the Hound impressions began to fade away. They usually only manifested themselves in times of extreme stress, but Rachel had recently begun noticing them coming forward at even the smallest manifestation of her power. "We need to get out of here, Nat. Get somewhere safe, where we can talk."

"How did they catch you? I couldn't quite grasp that in your mind...."

"Always asking questions, aren't you?" She surprised him by leaning forward and brushing her lips briefly against his cheek. "I'll answer everything -- but not here. You go by anything in particular when you wear that costume of yours?"

"Like a secret identity?" he asked, both amused and distressed. He hated how Charlie sometimes teased him about his abilities -- and the dark green uniform that had begun to appear more and more. "I think so... In my dreams, sometimes I'm called something other than my name." He ran a hand through his hair, as if dreading saying the name. 

"Go ahead. I won't laugh. My mom used to call herself Marvel Girl, y'know."

"And now you're the Phoenix."

A flash of pain passed over her beautiful features and Nathaniel regretted his words. He'd seen it in her mind... the horror... of knowing that her mother had been slain by Martian hordes that had invaded the world outside the Barrier.

"Guess so," she whispered. "My mom's died before and come back, so why not again? Until then, I'll keep the name to honor her."

"Catalyst."

"What?" she asked, surprised by the sudden turn in the conversation. Then she smiled warmly. "Nice. Catchy and I don't think anybody in the X-Men's ever used it. They've got a copyright on just about every verb and noun you can think of."

Nathaniel felt a spike of pain in his right temple and flinched. "You're right... We're in trouble. I sometimes get headaches when things are about to go wrong and--"

"Did you get one right before you freed me?"

"No."

Rachel winked. "Good again. Let's go -- there's bound to be someplace around here we can hide." She looked upwards and channeled all of her psychic force into a spike that shattered the roof. 

"You're leaving quite a trail."

"You haven't seen anything yet."

Two minutes later, Catalyst and Phoenix were gone... and a large pile of wreckage was all that was left of the warehouse.

They stood outside the flaming remains of the warehouse, each of them feeling something different in their hearts. Disappointment. Fear. Regret. Hope?

None voiced any of those, however. They knew better -- for the eyes and ears of Mys-Tech were never far away. The man in front, well-built and blond, picked up a communicator at his belt. "Planetary Conduit is completely destroyed. I'm sending Amber in now to verify that the energy exchange is still in place, but I have a feeling that it's not. If that's the case, how would you like me to proceed?"

The voice on the other end sounded weary and more than a little annoyed. "Hunt down the Phoenix and whoever's helping her. Bring her back -- and we'll get to work re-creating the spell."

"And her helpers?"

"Kill them."

Once upon a time, he'd heard the whispers of evil. They'd come to him through the ether, warning of violent crimes yet to be committed. He'd used that knowledge to try and prevent them from coming to pass -- sometimes it worked, sometimes not. But Johnny Domino always tried his best.

Now, however, his best simply was not good enough. He lay on the cobblestone path, both hands pressed over his forehead. The images that he saw, the ones that had led him here to England, were so powerful that they prevented him from doing more than groaning. He knew he was in danger -- he'd been fighting agents of Mys-Tech when this vision had hit -- but there was no avoiding what he saw. He had to ride out the vision and hope that NightMan wouldn't end up dead before it was done.

He saw Earth -- his Earth, anyway -- caught up in a powerful spell of some sort. Someone, armed with some kind of powerful spell -- had seized it and brought it into a universe not its own. A universe that NightMan knew well. It was home to Wolverine, Gambit and some of the others whom he had met on several occasions. 

A group of mystics had then traveled from one world to the other. They'd tied the two worlds together somehow, using a psychic conduit to do it. Their plan was to alter the history of one world, which would slowly seep into the other... eventually giving them control over both. 

The woman -- the psychic -- was now free, but she didn't yet know the truth. She didn't know the magic of the bond between worlds. There was 'bleed' between them, leading to some beings wandering from one to the other... and if the tamperings weren't ended soon, both worlds might die.

"I think he's in shock," someone said and Johnny felt himself begin to climb out of his stupor. His hand shot out automatically, gripping the ankle of the man standing next to him. Still believing himself surrounded by agents of Mys-Tech, he activated the taser attached to his glove. Electricity flooded into the man above him, eliciting a scream of shock and pain.

A sudden blow to his head -- inside his head -- made Johnny let go and he blinked his eyes to see two colorfully garbed people above him, neither of whom bore the jumpsuits he associated with Mys-Tech. One was a long-haired youth dressed in green, the other was a red-haired woman in green and yellow. "Who are you?" he managed, his head still pounding.

"My name's Rachel... the guy you just fried is Nathaniel. You really have a way of making someone regret offering you a hand." She gestured towards the Mys-Tech soldiers, piled up neatly behind them. "We saw you, figured you were outnumbered and decided to help."

"You're the psychic. The one who funneled energy between worlds." He rose unsteadily, aware that his gray and blue uniform looked torn and ragged. He'd been a jazz musician until the day that a shard of metal had imbedded itself in his brain, giving him the powers he'd used as NightMan. "You're wrong... Mys-Tech didn't create this world. They just stole it." He quickly described the vision he'd seen.

"I'm not sure which is harder for me to believe... that a world can be created, or that it can be stolen." Nathaniel watched NightMan warily, rubbing his own neck and frowning.

Rachel pursed her lips. "It makes sense. I came to Britain in hopes of finding Rahne Sinclair -- I had an offer for her and figured I'd give it to her in person. While I was in Scotland, the Barrier went up and I temporarily went brain-dead... the magical energies did something to my powers and I was totally screwed for awhile. When I woke up, Mys-Tech had me and I was hooked up to some sort of machine. Psychic energies were going from me to this world and back again, linking them. If this world was already in place, that's why the tampering that Mys-Tech's been doing has been so slow. They're not writing the world from scratch, they're selectively replacing pieces of its history. The magicks they're using were chronally-charged, too... I'm pretty sure that I saw myself, a future version anyway, warning Betsy Braddock about some threat*." She saw Nathaniel's look and smiled. "It really is bizarre to you, isn't it? Trust me -- after a few years, this kind of thing is old hat."

(*See Pendragons # 64)

"I'm not sure that's a good thing at all. But how does that play into our... attraction?"

"No idea, but I think that some of your... energies... are very compatible with mine. Kind of like pheromones, only magical."

NightMan cleared his throat. "Your freedom has only made things more unstable. If they keep manipulating the timestream and you're not part of the process stabilizing the worlds, both are at risk. There are already cases of people blinking from one world to the other*."

(*See Sludge in Miracles, Inc., Lord Pumpkin and Ghoul in Union Jack, etc.)

"I'm not letting anyone use me like that again."

"Didn't say you should... but we've got to stop them from continuing this."

Nathaniel looked around him, still feeling out of place. He wasn't a superhero... never would be, but for some reason fate had given him these abilities and had led him here. To Rachel. Maybe she was right -- maybe it was just a case of their magicks being compatible -- but he wanted to be with her, in every way conceivable. He reached out and slipped his hand in hers, drawing a smile from her in return. "Is it repairable? I mean, can we undo whatever they've already done here?"

"That I don't know about... Something about this place felt really fluid, anyway. Like it'd been manipulated on a universal level at least once before. Maybe that's why they chose to use this area -- Someone's coming. Our pursuit."

Nathaniel felt it, too. The throbbing in his head that sometimes warned of danger. He looked skyward and saw four figures hurtling towards them. "Who are they?"

NightMan shifted, clenching his hands into fists. These people were friends... or at least they were. Before Mys-Tech had began altering the world around them. For some reason, Johnny had retained his memories, but he wasn't sure that was a blessing -- or a curse. As the foursome landed before them, he pointed to them one by one. "Hardcase," he said, pointing to the broad-shouldered, blond-haired man in front. "Super-strength and tons of experience." He nodded towards a flaming female. "Amber Hunt. Wildly varying power levels, but not the greatest strategist in the world." Pointing towards a man even larger than Hardcase, he said "Prime. You know the Hulk in your reality. He's our closest version to that in terms of power." The last figure he merely nodded at. "And Queen Topaz. Enhanced strength and reflexes, plus a power staff that will knock your socks off. Ultraforce, one and all. Now pawns of the devil."

"Johnny," Hardcase said, his mouth turning downwards. "Give it up. Or I will hurt you this time."

"Go to hell."

Nathaniel placed a hand on NightMan's arm. "Hold off." He looked towards Ultraforce. "If we surrender, will you take us to the people in charge?"

Topaz, her skin covered by a metallic shell, sneered. "Cowards! You're going to die today, like the dogs that you are!"

Rachel allowed psychic flame to appear about her body and the right side of her face disappeared under the fiery Phoenix effect. "Then let's hold back, guys. We're down 4-3 so let's take 'em out quick."

"You're outmatched, little girl." Prime jumped for her, his massive physique rippling with power. There were rudimentary psychic shields around his mind, but nothing that the daughter of Jean Grey couldn't pierce. She jabbed a mental 'spike' directly into his brain, causing him to scream. He hit the ground with a splootch, his body breaking down into some sort of greenish goo. Within the shell was a little boy, looking weak and confused.

"Now that's something you don't see everyday," Catalyst whispered. He took to the air, letting his instincts take over. Eldritch blasts shot forth from his finger tips, striking both Amber and Topaz. The two women tumbled back, their powers strangely working against them. Amber's flame burned out of control and Topaz's metal shell peeled back, leaving her vulnerable. NightMan took that opportunity to strike at each, removing them from the field of battle.

That left only Hardcase, who watched them dispassionately. "You three really think you have a chance here?"

"I know we do," Rachel replied, with far more confidence that Nat himself felt. 

"Then you need to go to the Mys-Tech headquarters. Anywhere else is a waste of time. They have means of going from Earth to Earth, even without using the portal you made."

NightMan hesitated. "How do we know you're not leading us into a trap?"

"Because I'm tired of this, Johnny. Tired of the lie that's become our lives. Now go -- quickly!"

"Why don't you come with us?"

"They have ways of controlling us. Trust me -- I'd only be a threat to you once we were there."

Rachel reached into the hero-turned-slave's mind and felt his honesty, integrity and horror at what he'd become. She also grabbed the address that they needed. "Let's go, guys. I'm ready to get home."

Catalyst nodded, taking her hand once more. Their touch was electric. "Me, too."

They're coming here.

I know. Hardcase was never fully under our control.

What do we do? The one called Catalyst has powers he doesn't even realize. He could upset the balance and--

We prepare. We wait. And then we destroy them... and go ahead and conquer two Earths.

Next Issue: Our storyline draws to a close. What is Mys-Tech's true plan? What other changes have been made to the history of the Ultraverse -- and can they be reversed? Plus: Rachel and Nathaniel learn more about their strange attraction... and we learn the shocking members of Mys-Tech's new Board of Directors.

Author's Notes

Well, this wasn't quite what I'd envisioned. :-)

Times have changed and some of my ideas have become a bit impossible, given the twisting nature of the Pendragons Universe. It's a shared playground, after all, which is well and good. So the original 5-part storyline will be compressed into three and I'm afraid that issues 2 & 3 will be moving at breakneck speed, with more than a fair bit of exposition involved. There is a goal I'm trying to reach and I hope to be there at the end of next issue. Hopefully when all is said and done, we have added a powerful new mystic (Catalyst), brought in the Ultraverse for even more fun, repositioned Mys-Tech as a threat again, and made Rachel Summers a part of our ongoing universe.

See ya next issue.

Barry