In The Balance
Part 9 of the Genosha Arc - In The Balance | |
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Dates run: | May 25 - June 2, 2012 |
Run By: | Dex |
Read the logs: | In The Balance |
Knowing it was all part of the plan didn't make it taste any less like ash in his mouth as he drank down his reward for being a good boy.
In the Citadel, those captured experience interrogation, torture... and betrayal by one of their own.
Contents
Cast
Scott Summers, Korvus Rook'shir, Remy LeBeau, Sarah Morlocke, Marie-Ange Colbert, Clarice Ferguson, Amanda Sefton, Theresa Cassidy, Doug Ramsey, David Haller, Tabitha Smith, Vance Astrovik, Alexander Lexington
Tam Anderson, Elias Wittcombe, Magistrate Braddock, Former Genoshan President Okim Etunfunwa
Timing
Plot Summary
Following the ambush, a group of the captured mutants, deemed to be "terrorists" by the Genoshans, were transported to the Citadel prison and introduced to the warden. Following a 'welcome' by the Warden, Elias Wittcombe, they were mixed with the other political prisoners held there.
The interrogations began shortly after: while some, like Amanda and Korvus, were treated well on account of their foreign nationality; others were not, with threats of violence and in some cases, actual beatings and torture being employed. It became clear from the questioning that the Genoshans wanted to know how Xavier's found its students, having some kind of information about Cerebro and wanting to adopt it themselves. Some of the mutants resisted, others were vague, and some were surprisingly cooperative.
The strain began to show, with interactions between the mutants getting tenser. Scott and Haller had a number of altercations and Doug found himself more and more afraid of what would be done to him. Haller had a harrowing experience with Magistrate Braddock, who demonstrated she was not the woman he fell in love with, with brutal efficiency.
In the exercise yard, Lex, Sarah and Tabitha met the ex-President of Genosha - claimed to have died five years before in a helicopter crash - and he provided insight on how the prison system worked and why it worked the way it did.
At last, the pressure too much and increasingly deaf and isolated as a side effect of her powers loss, Terry cracked and told her interrogator of an escape plan, while Doug also provided details of when and where.
Haller and Korvus staged a fight and Tabitha lifted a key card from the guard who wentto break it up, before passing the card to Marie-Ange; Marie-Ange, Lex, Scott, Doug and Clarice provided a distraction in the form of a chemical fire after breaking into a store room. Amanda, Remy, Sarah and Terry fought their way to the guard security office, while, bringing up the rear, Korvus, Doug and Clarice had to stop, with Clarice too broken emotionally to go on and Terry joining them after being unable to cope as well. The final blow came when Sarah and Amanda were betrayed by Remy and detained, with Sarah attacking Remy and stabbing him with a bone knife in the leg before being taken down. Remy's identity as Gambit meant Wittecombe reneged on the deal and taken back into custody.
With Remy in solitary and Sarah hauled off for the mutate process, the remaining prisoners ended up fighting among themselves, with the guards pleased to see the group's cohesion broken. It was only later, that Amanda teleported into Scott's cell, revealing her magic was still accessible, and they discussed the plan as it stood so far.
Alone in his cell and Doug reflected on his part in the plan - betraying his friends - and the balance of personal over important.
Related Links
External Links
Trivia and Meta
Trivia
Doug's 'betrayal' was made all the more difficult by the impact of his part in the Revenant plot, where his loyalties to the Hellfire Club conflicted with his loyalties to X-Force.
Meta
Plotrunner: Dex, sub-runners Frito and Mackinzie
This arc is the X-Project version of the epic canon storyline X-Tinction Agenda.
The events of this plot still occurred in Phase 2, but specifics, such as which characters were involved, remain fuzzy for the purposes of not breaking the world. ;)