Behold A Pale Horse
| Behold A Pale Horse | |
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| Dates run: | January 6-7, 2024 |
| Run By: | Dex |
| Read the logs: | Behold A Pale Horse |
"I am Death," he hissed. "No man excels me. No man escapes me. I am Death, and the grave follows behind me."
The final installment of the Horseman Arc.
Contents
Timing
Part 1: Avignon
The X-Men follow a lead on the series of massacres across the globe to France to encounter enemies old and new.
Cast
Cyclops, Phoenix, Blink, Dazzler, Bevatron, Dust, Spectrum, Echo, Rogue
Plot Summary
(Contains external links to Dreamwidth.)
Intelligence from X-Force initiated an all-call for the X-Men to investigate potential threats from Clan Akkaba at the Fete des Mutante Arts Festival outside Avignon, France. Chaos was already unfolding as they arrived — a figure in red and black body armor was maiming and murdering the assembled guests. Phoenix identified his mental signature as Wade Wilson.
Blink and Echo engaged Deadpool first, deploying different strategies, as the rest of the team worked to provide crowd control and evacuate. Deadpool was mentally unstable, completely ruthless, and possessed a significantly stronger healing factor than their former friend. Deadpool’s ability to soak up damage proved hard to counter and Blink, Echo, and Spectrum were wounded.
The situation became more complex with the arrival of Malice and the Marauders (including Prism, previously thought dead). The Marauders declared that their objective was to apprehend Deadpool, who they believed was the Horseman of Death.
The X-Men were forced to engage with the Marauders as Deadpool continued his rampage, dipping in and out of individual fights with the team. Cyclops and Phoenix were interrupted from direct confrontation with Deadpool by Prism and Arclight. Bevatron and Dazzler faced (and, in the former's case, killed) Scrambler. Dust was disrupted while administering field medicine to Echo by Greycrow and Vertigo. Dazzler, Spectrum, and Blink fought Blockbuster and Riptide.
With the X-Men's attention split, Malice confronted Deadpool only to learn he was not the proper Horseman of Death. She was removed from the fight quickly by Phoenix after trying to manipulate Rogue.
The X-Men discovered that Deadpool escaped in the confusion of the melee and were left, alone, to care for their wounded without any clear victory. They realized that the entire encounter did not add up — there had not been enough carnage for Clan Akabba, there had been too many enemies, and this had taken too much time. This wasn’t Death. This was a ruse.
External Links
Part 1 The X-Men arrive in France and engage Deadpool.
Part 2 The Marauders arrive.
Part 3 The twist is revealed.
Part 2: District X
District X is beset by the combined forces of Clan Akkaba, Friends of Humanity, and their hired mercenaries.
Cast
Marie-Ange Colbert, Illyana Rasputin, Angelo Espinosa, Inez Temple, Julio Richter, Shatterstar, Darcy Lewis, Liam Nelson, Theresa Cassidy, Meggan Szardos, Sam Guthrie, Susan Storm, Madin, Doug Ramsey, Kevin Sydney, Catseye, Felicia Hardy, Warren Worthington, Barbara Morse, America Chavez
Clan Akkaba, Friends of Humanity
Plot Summary
(Contains external links to Dreamwidth.)
Garrison Kane, coordinating communications for the X-Men, received the news from his team that France was a decoy attack. He reached out to X-Force in concern over more local targets, and learned that there were multiple hostile groups currently closing in on District X.
X-Force mobilized in the city to provide overwatch.
Individuals already in New York organized quickly. Kane issued a General Alert to all mansion issued phones. He advised all personnel available to make their way to District X to assist with evacuation efforts. Marie-Ange Colbert took command on the ground as Illyana Rasputin provided transport by teleportation to mobilize those already in the mansion. Amanda Sefton communed with the city to best track hostile forces and hide enemy bodies.
Matt Murdock coordinated the remaining youths and Generation X members who stayed behind at the mansion to shelter in place.
Several individuals were attending a sword martial arts class, lead by Shatterstar, at a local youth center. They split into groups to escort the children in attendance to safety when the center was attacked by the Friendship of Humanity. Shatterstar and Rictor fought the forces directly while Angelo Espinosa and Inez Temple protected the children.
X-Force continued to provide overwatch, paired into sniper teams. Darcy Lewis recruited Liam Nelson to act as her spotter. They directed Terry Cassidy and Meggan Szardos to help victims that were stuck in an overturned car and attacked by hostiles. Sam Guthrie joined them to help protect people.
Darcy’s next order of business was to direct Susan Storm and Madin to waylay Clan Akkaba loyalists who tried to advance on the city center. She and Liam continued to provide overwatch and coordinate with Marie-Ange. They noticed that Sharon Smith needed help and deployed Felicia Hardy to assist.
Kevin Sydney and Doug Ramsey worked as a pair to keep watch and snipe on Avenue C.
Arthur Centino engaged hired mercenaries as he stretched his powers to extend to luck to those fleeing (and bad luck to others). He was distracted by the activities of Hope Summers.
While acting as Marie-Ange’s spotter, Warren Worthington III also assisted civilians attempting to flee (with the help of Bobbi Morse), namely one old woman and her record collection.
External Links
(Direct Part 2 stories are mixed with Part 3: Death in the narrative.)
Part 4 Marie-Ange, Kane, Illyana, Angelo, Inez, Shatterstar, Rictor
Part 5 Darcy, Marie-Ange, Gabe, Molly, Arthur, Hope (Summers), Terry, Meggan, Sam, Sue, Madin, Death
Part 6 Darcy, Liam, Wanda, Topaz, Hope (Abbott), Artie, Doug, Kevin, Sharon, Felicia, Death
Part 7 Warren, Bobbi, Kurt, Jubilee, Amanda, Kyle, April, Death
Part 8 Kane, Death
Part 9 Aftermath (Full cast)
Part 3: Death
The Horseman of Death advances on District X.
Cast
Molly Hayes, Gabriel Cohuelo, Arthur Centino, Hope Summers, Wanda Maximoff, Topaz, Artie Maddicks, Hope Abbott, Kurt Sefton, Jubilation Lee, Amanda Sefton, Kyle Gibney, April Parker, Garrison Kane
Plot Summary
(Contains external links to Dreamwidth.)
Anticipating that Death had the same goal as the previous Horsemen, a strategy was quickly devised to lead him away from the center of District X and into an ambush. Gabriel Cohuelo and Molly Hayes lead the opening salvo only to discover Death had access to two past adaptations: teleportation derived from Kurt Sefton, and the molecular control of Yvette Petrovic, resulting in a stalemate with Gabe and a dislocated shoulder for Molly.
After teleporting away from that engagement Death was confronted by a newly-arrived Hope Summers. Convinced it was her mission to engage the Horseman, Hope made a few ineffective attempts to disable him before attracting his attention. After discovering her telekinesis had no effect she was saved by the appearance of Arthur Centino. Arthur, having used his psychometry to read a piece of Death's armor, goaded Death into taking his powers and was tossed into a wall for his troubles.
Thanks to Arthur's alert, Marie-Ange Colbert engaged Wanda Maximoff to draw Death's attention with her chaos powers. Fighting against Death's stolen probability manipulation, Wanda led the Horseman into a vicious magical and empathic ambush by Topaz, causing him to retreat into a pocket dimension to recover.
Staggered, Death took time to recover in the transitional dimension known as Between, unaware that Hope Abbott was capable of detecting him in this state. Hope alerted the others, drawing the participation of a nearby Artie to deploy the most useful weapon at his disposal: an SUV. This was an assault Death proved somewhat less prepared for, and staggered him long enough for Kurt to teleport him to a more favorable location.
Utilizing his superior experience with teleportation, Kurt brought Death to an ambush laid by Jubilee and Amanda at Tompkins Square Park. There Amanda revealed herself to be the one who had been manipulating the city against him and immobilized the Horseman so Jubilee could cut loose with a massive pyrotechnic attack. Staggered but not down, Death attempted to menace the witch and the unconscious Jubilee, to which Amanda opted to try a more New Yorker solution to the problem. Fortunately Kurt once again intervened to take the Horseman to the final staging area.
Finally, Death was delivered to Kyle Gibney. Kyle bought time and goaded his former friend into feeding on him, becoming brutally injured in the process. At this point he called in their trump card: April Parker fully shifted into symbiote form. When immobilization was ineffective April engaged Death directly, her spider-sense proving difficult for him to counter. The Horseman teleported directly on top of April and began to feed, only to discover this was part of a strategy engineered by Kyle and Garrison to overload his system through a combination of energy overload and exposure to alien DNA. The resulting overload left the Horseman grievously injured, but not enough to prevent him from deploying his final attack: a sphere of instant death intended to sap all life from miles around.
In a last-ditch effort to prevent the total destruction of NYC, Garrison armed himself with a neural inhibitor and had himself teleported above the sphere. His chaos aura warped reality in an effort to keep him alive until he was able to slam the inhibitor on Death, leaving him alive but injured in minor but diverse ways. For reasons unknown, the resulting collision with Garrison's chaos aura undid Clan Akkaba's alterations while the neural inhibitor disrupted the link between En Sabah Nur and his avatar. Topaz recognized the opportunity and quickly used the former X-Man's emotions as fuel for a magical attack that obliterated the link between their two consciousnesses.
Related Links
X-Men Mission: Town Called Malice
X-Men Mission: Behold A Black Horse
External Links
Trivia and Meta
Trivia
IC notes stemming from the plot. Eg: "As a result of this Character A developed a crippling fear of ottomans".
Meta
Plotrunner: Dex
Subrunners: Isaura, Rossi (Part 1: Avignon); Tink, Walks, Al, Isaura (Part 2: District X); Tapestry (Part 3: Death)
Plot posters by Walks.
