New Orleans Is Sinking

De reality is dat de storm going to miss de main refineries and de oil and deep water cargo docks. So it's just lives and property damage, and no one wants to risk dere career for de poorest region in de country.

In the finale stage of Belladonna's plans, New Orleans is faced on the path of massive mystically fueled hurricane, and the only thing between it and the destruction of the city is X-Force.

Cast

Wanda Maximoff, Sofia Mantega-Barret, Mark Sheppard, Doug Ramsey, Marie-Ange Colbert, Sarah Morlocke, Amanda Sefton, Remy LeBeau, Pete Wisdom, Illyana Rasputin

Timing

Sept 26 - Oct 1, 2007

Plot Summary

Revenge is a dish best served complete, as Belladonna Boudreaux-LeBeau belives, and after over a year of picking at Remy LeBeau and the remaining pockets of resistance from the New Orleans Guilds, she'd finally put the last pieces together to make it happen. A small tropical storm was caught and tracked by NOAA in the Gulf of Mexico, moving towards New Orleans. Inexplicably, it began to increase in size despite a lack of natural conditions to fuel it. The storm, growing rapidly towards a Cat-5 and named Josephine, would make landfall in only a few days.

At the same time, as a backlash from Wanda Maximoff's powers during a training session, Marie-Ange Colbert's powers began to haunt her with powerful precognitive dreams of storms, flood and the dead walking the streets of New Orleans. During a lunch with Remy to talk about the dreams, an assassin's bullet meant for LeBeau struck Marie-Ange instead, putting her in critical condition in a nearby hospital.

X-Force quickly began to research the situation, to discover a number of disturbing facts; Belladonna had used the bokor who had previously been aligned with Candra to cast an ancient weather spell, empowering the hurricane to an unprecedented level. She had also hired mercenaries to enter the city under the cover of the storm, to block any efforts by the poor local population from fleeing. With the federal government and local governments unwilling to spend the resources to evacute the poor in the wards, once the storm hit, tens of thousands would drown, and many more starve or die of thirst in the days after. That would break the power base of Tante Mattie and the voodoo community, handing the Guilds absolute power in New Orleans.

Travelling down, with Ororo Munroe along, X-Force began a desperate plan to stop Belladonna. Only Illyana Rasputin is left behind, to watch over Marie-Ange and pass along information if they were all killed. Pete Wisdom, along with Sarah Morlocke, Doug Ramsey, Mark Sheppard and Wanda made their way to the levees, to stop the explosives that the Assassins had planted. Along the way, they were assisted by Javier Boudreaux, an old assassin that had been forced out by Belladonna's supporters. Ororo and Sofia Mantega-Barret went out into the teeth of the storm, to try and hold the worst of it back long enough for the rest of them to try and disrupt the ritual powering the hurricane.

Finally, Remy and Amanda Sefton answer their summons from Tante, who uses Amanda to empower Remy with the loa spirit of Baron Samedi. Tante reveals that this future is what led her to leave Gambit alive, and is what bound Amanda, Remy and Marie-Ange together. The Baron emerges, and leads thousands of residents in a long dance, through the mercenary forces and right to the gates of the Assassins, before departing and leaving LeBeau seemingly dead behind.

As Belladonna emerged to confront them, confident in victory, Remy was able to get to his feet, revealing that against all probability, the Baron hadn't consumed his spirit. Behind her, the Boudreaux mansion explodes in a firey show, as Daniel Boudreaux, Belladonna's brother, reveals he is not dead and has destroyed her powerbase. The explosion stops the ritual, leaving Sofia to rush an unconscious Ororo to a hospital as the storm dies out.

Arlan D'Armade, producing thick stacks of evidence, reveals that Remy is actually Sebastian D'Armade, a long lost son of a former Thieves Guildmaster, and by marriage, the rightful leader of the Assassins as well. With her own trial pending regarding the Guildmasters she murdered, Belladonna was forced to flee, with the knowledge that the Assassins would be hunting her. In his new position, Remy reverses all of Belladonna's policies to unite the Guilds, returning them to the fractious and now much reduced state, before abdicating his own rights to any position. Confronting Arlan later, he reveals that Remy's parentage was a lie to oust Belladonna, and as an apology, gives Remy information about his real parents in an envelope, revealing only that he had been born to low ranking members of both Guilds.

In the impromptu street party that erupts following the near disaster, Tante has Amanda use the energy of the city to help Illyana teleport Marie-Ange to New Orleans, and heal the damage. They join everyone else at the party. Remy finds Ororo in the hospital, only to discover that as a result of her output, Ororo has lost her powers, potentially for good. Remy catches her up on the details, and surprisingly destroys the envelope containing the information about his parents unopened, marking his own rejection of the past on who he is. Not long after, he speaks with Tante, who hints that the part of him that was Gambit might have been what was consumed, and why Remy is currently still alive. Tante also informs him that following this night, she has relinquished control of the community to a new leader, and will retire to her home in the swamp.

Related Links

New Orleans Guilds

Belladonna Boudreaux-LeBeau

Drop of Nightshade

Wendy

Voodoo Child

External Links

New Orleans Is Sinking is the fourth part and conclusion to The Prince of Thieves arc.

Trivia and Meta

Trivia

Ororo's powers were lost in this plot, and to date have not yet returned.

Following these events, Doug Ramsey asked Remy directly for training as a full operative, making a moral decision that the methods they employ are necessary.

Meta

New Orleans Is Sinking is the fourth part and conclusion to The Prince of Thieves arc.

The name of the plot, as well as most of the cut tags, and the name of the hurricane are all references to music by The Tragically Hip.

New Orleans Is Sinking uses many examples from the disaster of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, including the fractured and dismissive government preperation and the inability of the 9th Ward population to evacuate.

Plotrunner: Dex