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When Maddie sees the Stratojet return to Graymalkin Lane, she runs to the hangar to greet the X-Men. Though she has no powers of her own, she’s become close with her sister’s team, which now consists of Scott, Bobby, Warren, Jean and two more recent additions: Lorna Dane and Scott’s brother Alex. She likes to be there when they get back from their missions.
Immediately, she realizes something is wrong.
Scott emerges from the Stratojet with his uniform in tatters. His visor is gone, but he’s not squinting his eyes shut like usual. Instead, miraculously, his eyes are open wide and nothing is happening.
“Scott?”
“The Professor,” Scott says, stumbling down the ramp. “I need the Professor.”
“Slow down,” Maddie says, holding her hands out like she might need to stop Scott from falling over. “Where’s Jean? Where’s the rest of the team?”
“There’s no time, I need to talk to the Professor,” he says, jostling past her.
Maddie squares her shoulders and marches after him. “Tell me what the hell happened to my sister, Scott Summers,” she says, matching pace with him until he stops and turns to face her again.
“The mutant, the mutant on the island that we went to find,” Scott says, raking his fingers wildly through his hair. “It got them. We’d barely landed and he got the jump on us. I woke up back on the Stratojet, no powers, and the controls were locked.” He sucks in a frantic breath. “I don’t know , Madelyne, I don’t know what happened to Jean or my brother or any of them. I don’t know what happened to my eyes. I don’t know.”
“Alright,” she says. “Okay. We’ll figure it out.”
She’s struck suddenly by how much Scott’s typical ruby quartz lenses hide his emotions. Without anything covering his eyes, she can see every bit of anguish, stress and anxiety etched out on his face.
“Let’s go talk to the Professor,” she says, holding her hand out to him.
Jean opens her eyes.
When she realizes she can’t move her arms or legs, the panic hits her. She breathes in and out, counts up from ten and waits for her eyes to adjust to the dimness. What happened? “Scott,” she calls, feeling groggy. Something is roped around her. For a moment, she can pretend she’s just tangled in her bedsheets, safe at home.
But then she looks down.
“Scott!”
“He’s gone,” a voice mumbles from somewhere off to the right. Jean strains her neck and manages to make out Alex’s outline in the darkness. He’s strung up by some kind of vines, looking as helpless as she feels. “The island let him go.”
The island. Of course. The mutant that they came to find, the mutant that turned out to be a massive island intent on feeding on mutant energy. “Why would it do that?” Jean says, fidgeting in her bonds. Maybe she can wriggle her way out of the island’s clutches… she could , maybe, if she weren’t so weak. It’s like these vines are sapping away all her strength.
“Bait,” Alex says darkly. “What are the odds the Prof sends him back here with even more mutants?”
“An all-you-can-eat buffet,” Jean says, jerking against the vines.
Alex clicks his tongue. “More like a pizza delivery,” he says. “Scott’s the pizza man, the other mutants are the pizza—”
“Can we talk about something else?” a voice pipes up from the darkness.
“Lorna!” Alex yelps, straining his neck to look at her. “Are you okay?”
“Definitely not,” she grumbles. “Jeannie, how are we doing?”
“Very bad,” Jean says. “Hey, is that Warren next to you? Are you able to wake him up?” Lorna tries to reach out to Warren while Jean focuses on Bobby hanging next to her. She can feel a chill along her side, but that’s her only indication that he’s at all okay. He’s not moving. It’s too dark for her to even see if he’s breathing, though he must be.
When she tries to reach out with her telepathy, she finds only shadows of her teammates’ psyches. They quiet in comparison to the dull throb of the island’s mind pushing against hers. Her mind retreats, and she gasps.
“Jean?” Lorna says.
“I can hear it,” she says. “The island, it’s…” But suddenly the vines tighten around her, the sensation of being drained increases. “Lorna…”
“I’m here, Jean.” But her voice sounds so far away. Jean struggles to keep her eyes open as the island lulls her back into unconsciousness.
It takes a lot of arguing and twisting Scott’s arm for Maddie to be given clearance to fly the Stratojet, and he still refuses to let her set foot on the island once they land. “I’ve got a whole new team I need to lead,” he tells her brusquely. “I can’t keep an eye on you, too. And Madelyne, listen, I’m not… I’m not trying to be a hardass,” he says, quieter. (When it comes to the newbies, he is trying to be a hardass. That’s what they need right now.) “You’re our pilot. The best place for you to be, not just for your safety but for ours , is here, ready to take off. Okay?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Don’t call me sir.”
“Aye-aye, captain,” Maddie says, snapping a salute. Scott groans. “Just bring my sister back safe.”
“I will,” he says gravely.
He turns to leave, but Maddie grabs his elbow. “Wait wait wait. And the Marine, too. Make sure you bring him back. Yum .”
“Can we not assess new X-Men based on their level of attractiveness?”
“I’ve already got ’em all ranked, right here,” she says, tapping the side of her head. “You want to know where you are on the list?”
“Bye.”
“You’ve got a lot more competition now,” she calls after him as he deboards the plane. Because it’s easy. Because joking about how hot Scott is compared to Thunderbird and Wolverine and Banshee keeps her from thinking too much about the chances that Jean might already be dead.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Scott is a brilliant leader, even if he is a hardass. And these new mutants are nothing to sneeze at. And Jean is one of the bravest people Madelyne’s ever met, so even captured and in danger, she’s a force to be reckoned with. Surely. Probably.
Maddie checks the door and waits for the X-Men to come back.
Bobby’s ice-dome manages to keep them all safe and dry while the sudden whirlpool swirls around them. With Krakoa somewhere out in the atmosphere, courtesy of one Lorna Dane, all the seawater rushes in to fill the suddenly empty space.
When the water finally quiets, Scott blasts the ice apart and the X-Men, old and new, clamber into the jet.
Jean shouts with relief when she sees Maddie inside, and she leaps forward to hug her sister. Maddie hugs her back, looking bemused but delighted to see all the X-Men safe and sound. “So, um,” she says, still clinging to Jean, “didn’t there used to be an island? Like. Right under me?”
That first night is weird.
Madelyne spends most of her time in the common room listening to Sean banging out the tunes. Of all the new arrivals, he seems to be the most upbeat and optimistic about the whole situation. While Piotr’s homesickness is coming off of him in waves and Wolverine stalks around outside, the man known as Banshee seems content to play the piano and chat amiably with anyone who will listen.
Meanwhile, Bobby and Warren are packing their bags and Jean’s taken to wandering the halls like a ghost. Maddie knows a mass exodus is coming, can feel it in the air. Maybe it’s a twin thing, or maybe she just knows these people too well after living with them the last few years.
The question is— if Jean and the others leave so the new X-Men can take over, what about Maddie? She’s here because of Jean, not because of Xavier or the X-Men’s mission. After all, she’s not even a mutant. Naturally, she’d follow Jean… right?
But flying the Stratojet had given her such a sense of… purpose. Like she was finally contributing something. It felt good to be part of the team, to have a role to play. She’s not ready to give it up so soon after discovering what she might be capable of.
Maddie wakes up early the next morning and finds Jean in the kitchen, staring into a bowl of cereal like she’s thinking of diving in. “You’re up early,” Maddie comments, pouring herself some juice.
“Nah, not really,” Jean says. “I never went to sleep.”
“What’s on your mind?” Maddie sits across the counter from Jean, looking at the woman whose face so resembles her own.
“Well, I…” Jean sighs. “I think I might go.”
Maddie tries to look surprised. “You should do what makes you happy, Jean,” she says, reaching across the counter to place a hand over her sister’s. “You deserve to be happy.”
“It’s just that I’ve been between my parents and the Professor since I was thirteen years old,” Jean points out. “Maybe it’s time for me to try something new. This is the best opportunity I’ve had.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” And the thing is that she would, if Jean asked her to. Even if she isn’t sure it’s what she wants, she’d leave this place if her sister wanted her to. After everything Jean has done for her, has saved her from, she owes her that loyalty.
“Madelyne, we’re twins, not a two-headed monster,” Jean says. “I want you to do what you want to do. Whether that’s stay here or move out, it’s up to you.”
“I think… I think I want to hang around,” Maddie says. “I’m learning more about piloting every day. And these new X-Men… they’re gonna need someone around to remind them to kick back and take it easy every now and then.”
“They’re gonna love you,” Jean promises, walking around the counter to hug her. “You and these new kids in town, you can take care of each other.”
“Who’s gonna take care of you?”
“I’ve got friends,” Jean says. “Besides— I won’t be far. You can come visit whenever you want, or I’ll come visit you.”
“Where will you stay?”
“I called my friend Misty earlier,” she says. “She’s had her eye on this place, but she can’t afford it without a roommate. I told her I wanted to go in on it with her, and she agreed. My first apartment.”
“I can’t believe you’re gonna be in an apartment,” Maddie says. “You’re like. A real grown-up now.”
“Never,” Jean says. “If that Russian kid calls me ‘ma’am,’ I’ll scream.”
On the day of her departure, Jean dresses in a powder blue suit and matching hat. Her bags are packed. Warren’s agreed to drive her to her new place in the city. She wonders if this is what “normal” folks feel like when they leave home for the first time. Even during her single semester at Metro U, she was still back here almost every day. This place has been a safe haven, a boarding school, a boot camp. It’s been home, if not exactly a “normal” home.
Jean is the last out the door, following close behind Alex and Lorna. She says all her goodbyes and walks away, but she only makes it a few steps before she hears someone coming after her.
She’s not really surprised to see that it’s Scott. “Are you… are you going to be okay?” he asks.
“I’m a superhero,” she reminds him. “I’ll be fine, Slim. Are you gonna be okay?”
He shrugs. “It’s just a new normal,” he says. “Trying something new.”
“You don’t feel like we’re all ditching you, do you?” Jean asks, suddenly worried. “I don’t want you to feel like—”
“No, no, I get it,” he says. “Everyone needs a little change sometimes. And these new X-Men need a veteran to show them the ropes.”
“You won’t be completely alone,” she reminds him. “You’ve got Maddie on your side.”
“That’s true,” Scott says. “She’s already gotten into it with Wolverine over shelf space in the fridge. I get the feeling she’ll be able to hold her own with these new X-Men.”
“You will too, you know,” Jean says, knocking her shoulder against his. “You’re a good leader, Scott. You know how to make people listen. And this new team, they’re going to need that. I can’t think of someone better to lead the next incarnation of the team.”
“It won’t be the same.” He doesn’t sound mournful exactly, just contemplative. Like he’s still trying to figure out what he’s getting himself into.
“Okay, how about this,” Jean says. “Every time that Thunderbird pisses you off or Wolverine crosses a line, you can just think about all the things you don’t have to put up with now.”
“Like?”
“Bobby and Alex getting annoyingly competitive about every last thing,” she says. “Warren leaving feathers everywhere. Me stealing all your cereal.”
“It’s not that I mind you eating it, it’s just that you never roll the bag back down and it all gets stale,” Scott says.
“You know who I bet has excellent cereal etiquette?”
“Who?”
“The blue guy. What’s his name, Kurt?” Jean says. “Kurt strikes me as someone who respects the sanctity of cereal.”
“We’ll see,” Scott says. “I’m going to miss you, Jean.”
“And I you, Scott,” she says, holding her arms up. Scott hugs her tightly, pressing a kiss to her temple as he pulls away. Jean wipes her eyes, trying to disguise the gesture by adjusting the brim of her hat. “I’ll call you tonight, after I’m settled.”
“Okay,” he says. “See you around, Marvel Girl.”
“See you around, Cyclops.”
The all-new, all-different X-Men don’t waste time sitting around after the old team ducks out. They’ve got a Danger Room training scheduled that day, and Maddie knows exactly where she wants to be for it.
“If you teach me how to work the controls,” she tells Professor Xavier, “I can run the Danger Room for you. Save you a lot of time. Plus, you know… I like to feel useful.”
“Hm,” the Professor says, glancing up from the console. “I’m afraid the training of my new team of X-Men is somewhat more important than how you feel, Ms. Pryor.”
The Professor has never liked her, and she’s never really been able to figure out why. She thought at first it was because she wasn’t a mutant, but he has plenty of human friends, so that can’t be it. Maybe, she reasons, he’s angry with Jean for leaving and taking it out on her? It’s a very weak hypothesis, given that his dislike of her started long before today, but she can’t think of anything else.
Well. No matter what it is that the Professor holds against her, she knows how to let his remarks slide off of her. It’s not like she hasn’t heard worse from her father.
“Let me rephrase that,” she says, smiling a smile she doesn’t feel. “I should be trained on the Danger Room controls so that there’s always someone available to run the room.”
“In what circumstance would I be unavailable?” he says.
“Just in case you need to fake your death again,” she says easily, not breaking eye contact.
Jean and Scott like to say that talking to the Professor is like playing chess, but Madelyne disagrees. It’s not like chess at all— it’s like boxing. Dodging, ducking, dealing blows. Trying to be the last one standing in the ring.
She wins this round.
“Very well,” the Professor says, sliding over to give her a better view of the console. “Lesson one— lasers.”