Appearing in "Down Under"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Roma
- Gateway (First appearance)
- Jessán Hoan (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- The Reavers (First appearance)
- Bonebreaker (First appearance)
- Pretty Boy (First appearance)
- Skullbuster (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Unnamed Singaporeans
- Mrs. Pei
- Mei Ling (First appearance; dies)
- other unnamed children
- Jessán Hoan's uncle - (Death)
- Stanley and Ollie, ex-Reavers
- Adversary (Mentioned)
- King Arthur (Mentioned)
- Charles Xavier (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth
- Asia
- Southeast Asia
- Singapore
- Hoan International Bank
- Singapore
- Southeast Asia
- Oceania
- Australian Continent
- Australia
- Northern Territory
- Maynards Plains (First appearance) (Unnamed)
- Reaver Base (First appearance)
- Maynards Plains (First appearance) (Unnamed)
- Northern Territory
- Australia
- Australian Continent
- Asia
Items:
Synopsis for "Down Under"
Singapore: It's a typical day of business at the Hoan International Bank as Jessan Hoan shows Mrs. Pei and her two children around the bank. This tranquility is ruined when the bank is suddenly sieged by the Reavers, a group of cyborg mercenaries who teleport in with guns blazing. When the Reaver known as Skullbuster grabs the owner and demands that he provide the combination -- he cannot talk because the cyborg is choking him too hard. Jessan pipes up and tell the mercenary that there is no combination, that the vault automatically locks for 24 hours during an emergency and to leave her uncle alone. Skullbuster instead breaks the mans neck instead and has his colleague Bonebreaker use a laser cannon to blast through the vault. As the Reavers begin looting the facility, Pretty Boy decides to take Jessan as their hostage and they all teleport away.
They come out of the other side of the teleportal in Australia, where they once more threaten the Aboriginal Australian mutant teleporter Gateway that they will desecrate the land if he refuses to continue helping them pull their heists. The group then begins to party hard, like they usually do. Pretty Boy takes Jessan down to the room where the Reavers keep all their stolen loot and tells her that he is going to make her one of them so that they can use her financial skills to properly manage their soils. When Hoan tries to run, Pretty Boy grabs her and then ejects his eye filaments and begins reprogramming her brain to be like them, ruthless with no sense of morality.
Suddenly, an unexpected sandstorm blows up into the Reavers hideout and begins to trip them up before they can act. This has been caused by Storm who has come with her fellow X-Men to break up the Reaver's operation. While the others attack the main party, Dazzler and Longshot go to rescue Jessan. Furious at seeing Hoan being reprogrammed, Longshot cuts the filaments and saves her while Dazzler attacks and overpowers him.
While in the hideout's saloon, Colossus and Rogue attack the gathered Reavers, with an assist from Havok. When Bonebreaker grabs Rogue's bare arm, her powers absorb his memories, thoroughly disgusting her with how vile they are. In the confusion, Bonebreaker, Skullbuster and Pretty Boy manage to get away and order Gateway to teleport them away, telling the Aboriginal that if he does so then his debt to them is paid. When Gateway complies and the three senior Reavers manage to escape, Wolverine considers killing him, but Storm orders him to stand down, telling Logan that she thinks Gateway was forced into doing their bidding.
In the aftermath of the battle, the X-Men have gathered up the Reavers and bound them. With their mission accomplished they begin to wonder what to do with the captured Reavers, as letting them loose to the authorities would blow their cover of supposedly being dead. Roma appears before them and thanks the X-Men for completing the mission that she tasked them with. She then gives them the Siege Perilous, telling them that whoever passes through its gates is judged by the highest powers and is reborn into a new life where they can get a second chance. After some discussion, Storm gives the Reavers a choice: Go through the Siege, or be killed by Wolverine. The cowardly remains of the Reavers choose the Siege and soon traverse into it. Jessan cries against being forced through the Siege telling them that she was the Reaver's prisoner. The X-Men decide to leave her be and ask Roma to teleport her back home, something that Roma does thankfully.
Before departing, she tells the X-Men that they now have a bold new direction to go into, and leaves the Siege Perilous in their care. Telling them that they can choose to use it themselves should they desire to take on new lives. However, the X-Men all unanimously agree that they will stay together and go after their enemies before they consider doing this. As a final word, Roma tells the X-Men that she has caused them to be invisible to any scanning or detection method, be it technological, magic or biological in fashion -- save for the devices within the Reavers base. With that, she departs and tells the X-Men that they have the opportunity to lead the world and that the future rests in their hands.
See Also
Links and References
- Official Marvel Index to the X-Men (Vol. 2) #4 - See for further referencing