Appearing in "What Dreams May Come..."
Featured Characters:
- X-Men
- Angel (Warren Worthington III) (Leaves group)
- 🢐 Beast (Hank McCoy) 🢒
- Bishop (Lucas Bishop) (Leaves group)
- Colossus (Peter Rasputin)
- Cyclops (Scott Summers)
- Gambit (Remy LeBeau)
- Iceman (Bobby Drake)
- Phoenix (Jean Grey)
- Jubilee (Jubes Lee) (Leaves group)
- Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde)
- Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner)
- Polaris (Lorna Dane) (Leaves group)
- Professor X (Charles Xavier) (Leaves group)
- Psylocke (Betsy Braddock)
- Rogue
- Storm (Ororo Munroe)
- Wolverine (Logan)
- Cable (Nate Summers)
- Cannonball (Sam Guthrie) (Leaves group)
- Marrow (Sarah)
- X-Man (Nate Grey) (Leaves group)
Supporting Characters:
- Generation X
- X-Force
- Aurora (Jeanne-Marie Beaubier)
- Northstar (Jean-Paul Beaubier)
- Sabra (Ruth Bat-Seraph)
- Monet St. Croix
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "What Dreams May Come..."
Xavier leaves Earth with the mutant Skrulls to become their teacher, being seen off by Shadowcat and Colossus on Muir Island. As Xavier leaves, Kitty tells Peter that the X-Men should follow their dreams, as well as her wanting a life beyond the X-Men, thinking now might be the time for her to do so.
Xavier senses this, though he's confident that Kitty, despite her feelings of abandonment, betrayal and anger, would've likely done the same thing if she was in his shoes.
At the same time, at Xavier's, Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, Marrow, Arcangel, Psylocke and Nightcrawler are playing a game of baseball. While Ororo is distracted and thinks that the X-Men are only going to face more turmoil due to the past several months' events, Logan assures her the team'll find a way to win whatever's thrown their way.
On Genosha, Magneto and Polaris watch a group of mutates battle a group of human rebels. When Lorna suggests they get the local fractions from killing each other, Magneto remarks that's why she's there, to help power him up due to his recently weakening abilities before they join the fight as well, Polaris wondering if she made the right call to join Magneto.
Meanwhile, Mystique infiltrates the National Reconnaissance Office in order to try and clean up her tracks by finding who's responsible for the exposure of several of her previous identities.
In Genosha, a heated debate is taking place between the Acolytes and Fabian Cortez, who believes they should overthrow Magneto due to his weakening powers and the fact it's taking longer for him to recharge each time, though the debate is halted by Magneto as he returns with Polaris, who's still debating over her choice to join Magneto as any blood Magneto sheds might be on her hands, though she also wonders if she could take him on if she tried to.
In Alaska, Nate Gray approaches Jean as she's mediating as Phoenix and thinking about her own death. Sensing Nate is still blaming himself for Scott's death, Jean tells him it wasn't his fault, and that Apocalypse not taking the fact that the X-Men are willing to sacrifice themselves for each other into account was what led to his downfall.
Meanwhile, Mimic, Toad, Blob and Post have gathered in a log cabin to plan a heist involving a secret weapon being made at Paradigm Micronics that could potentially make them rich.
Iceman and Beast arrive on Genosha in order for Hank to commit research on the Legacy Virus, due to Genosha having the biggest mutant population in the world as he fears someone might retrigger it, which would make the deaths the virus caused resume.
Back at Xavier's, the X-Men are relaxing after their game when a hologram of the High Evolutionary arrives, much to the team's surprise.
High Evolutionary then states that mutantkind is too dangerous and as such, he has decided to put an end to it.
Adding that he doesn't wish to harm them, High Evolutionary adds he has built an energy field to neutralize the mutant genome, reverting the mutants to the humans they could've been.
As Rogue and Gambit protest this and Betsy makes a sarcastic remark, Kurt realizes that High Evolutionary's plan is already underway as he wouldn't have come otherwise.
Despite this, High Evolutionary has prepared a rebuttal to their arguments, pointing out that in a world with no mutants, they won't be struggling to free themselves from the oppression most of them have been subjected to since either puberty or birth, nor will they need to worry about Magneto.
Logan tries to reason with High Evolutionary, pointing out there are several other, non-mutant beings who're powerful, like Thor, Dr. Doom, Mandarin and Hulk, as well as pointing out that Scarlet Witch, Firestar, Quicksilver and Beast would also suffer and, as part of the Avengers, said team likely wouldn't take this lightly.
Despite the somewhat reasonable argument, High Evolutionary begins the procedure and the effects are shown around the globe: Kitty and Colossus both convulse with agony as their powers are stripped away, while in Alaska, Jean crash lands onto the ground, with Sunfire and X-Man doing the same in their respective locations.
At the same time, Cable feels the techno-organic virus in him attack as his own powers vanish while the members of both X-Force and Generation X also experience their own powers being stripped away.
As Auroa, Northstar and Sabra also scream in agony as their own abilities are neutralized, Magneto and the Acolytes undergo the same thing as Magneto realizes that, should word get out, the island's factions will certainly come for him as revenge.
Mystique, almost done with her scheme, suddenly undergoes the procedure herself, making her easy prey for some guards as it causes her to briefly black out in pain. At the same time, Post, Mimic, Blob and Toad also get stripped of their powers, causing Blob to become very skinny, though retaining his massive folds of skin, Post becoming a normal man and Mimic to lose his current and previous abilities (though Toad seems thrilled as the procedure has given him a very handsome appearance and he's now able to stand upright like a normal person).
As they also undergo the depowering process, Bobby and Hank (the latter now with only a few clumps of fur on his body) hear the same thing is happening globally, prompting Hank to suspect that somebody else may also be involved.
After the procedure is done, High Evolutionary tells the X-Men (as Warren loses the last of his feathers and Kurt completely turns human) that while he knows it seems unfair, he hopes that they'll accept everything in time. Xavier's dream is now complete. High Evolutionary then tells the group to enjoy their new lives as he departs, leaving the still in shock X-Men completely... ordinary.
The story continues in X-Men (Vol. 2) #99.
Notes
- This story is reprinted in the trade paperback X-Men: Powerless!. Shadowcat mentions her age as barely 16. This is a mistake, with the 4:1 Marvel Time ratio, she is actually barely 18 years old.
