***********************************************************
X-Writers is a not-for-profit fan fiction group intent on
furthering the stories and characters of the X-Men by Marvel
Comics. All characters and likenesses thereof are copyright
and trademark Marvel Comics Group, Inc and are used for hobby 
purposes only.
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                   X-Writers Presents:
                       X-Man #16
                 "Stars in their Eyes"
                 Written By Andy Banks
                Edited by Andrew Wheeler


"ADAM!!" Nate screams.

"What is it?" Adam says as he runs over towards Nate. As Adam approaches
he finds Nate staring into the sky. Whatever is wrong has paralyzed his
new found friend. 

Since the two of them flew to this island a few weeks ago, they haven't
had any threats. No one has challenged them. No one has ridiculed them.
Adam begins to wonder if this silence has finally come to an end. 

"Look!" Nate says as he points to the sky, "STARS!" 

"You called me over for that?" Adam responds. He smiles trying not to give
away his feeling of relief. 

"I've never seem them before. Not this clear at least. They're...amazing.
There's got to be thousands of them." Nate says in wonder. 

Adam looks at Nate, and begins to think that his new friend is just a bit
off his rocker.

"You've never seen stars?" Adam asks. 

"Not like this. There was never a night before when I've ever looked up in
the sky and seen this many. Where I came from, we never had clear skies. I
guess that ever since I've been on this world, I've never had the chance
or the desire to just...look up. It's...beautiful." Nate replies.

Adam takes a seat on a short wall made of rocks and stones. He leans his
arms back to rest his weight on them. He kicks his legs out and shuffles
his feet in the sand to get comfortable. Nate continues to stand and twirl
around, trying to get a good look at each and every one of the stars in
the clear night sky. 

"They are beautiful. Especially up close. I suppose that I sort of take
them for granted, when I grew up among them." Adam replies as he too
begins to look at them in a new fashion. 

Nate turns towards Adam. "Where are you from Adam?" he asks.

"Out there," Adam responds, "everywhere out there. I did not grow up on a
planet. I was always on man-made craft since I can first remember." 

Nate looks around the sky once more and takes a seat in the warm sand.
"Tell me more?" Nate asks. 

"Well..." Adam replies, "Since no one has ever asked, I think someone
should know." 

Adam sits upright and begins his tale.


Since I was very young, I remember that I would constantly look out the
windows of the ships to see everything that I could see. Rarely did
anything exciting ever go on in my childhood. Occasionally I would see a
fighter ship or an alien frigate pass by but there was certainly no action
for me to see. I used to ask my parents constantly about being a fighter
pilot but they were simple peasants and had no glorious tales to tell. I
grew up thinking that I was destined to follow in their footsteps. To
always be a working class fellow with no desire for adventure. Back then
my name was A'dm Li'wanje.

My mother was a beautiful, plain woman. Rarely did she ever partake in any
pleasure. During the work day she was an interpreter to the Shi'ar
Secretaries. She was fluent in many alien languages. When she was not
working she would prepare food and clean our quarters. When she was not
doing that she spent her free time reading texts from alien worlds. 

My father was an engineer. His duties were to maintain the frigate ship
that we lived on and to repair any damage done by the rigors of space.
However he never was allowed to travel outside the ship and the most
exciting work he ever did was maintenance on the Life Support equipment.
It was because of his duties that we never knew a homeworld. When he
didn't work he would spend a great deal of time in the ships recreation
area, drinking alien wines and wasting his life away. 

I would wander around the ship as a child in search of other children whom
I could find companionship with. Most were either older than myself or
spent a good portion of their time with their parents. I had no such
inclinations. I would go down to the space docks and watch as the
fighters flew in and of the hangars. I constantly dreamt of hijacking a
ship and flying off to all the corners of the universe. 

When I grew older, I had begun to work with my mother. I would come along
with her and learn some of the alien languages which she would speak all
day. I was becoming fluent in different dialects but spent most of my time
practicing with her one of the Terran languages. English, as it is called
here. It was my favorite language and certainly one of the most descriptive. 
It rarely depended on tone of voice and was one of the most commonly
written languages in space. I would seek out English speaking aliens
throughout the port and ask them to tell me the tales of their adventures.
I would listen intently for hours as they told their tales of ship to ship
battles and invasions. The pirates told me tales of adventure and fierce
battles called "Dogfights".

Listening to such glorious tales made me yearn for a life of escapades
amongst the cosmos and the glorious reward of becoming a pilot. I applied
and was accepted to the Shi'ar Royal Space Academy where I would pursue my
dream of becoming a fighter pilot.

The day that I would board the transport for the Imperial Palace ship, my
parents bid me fond farewell. I hugged my mother and my father and thanked
them for all they had done. My mother spoke to me in English so as not to
upset Father. She knew that he did not want her to tell me this. I can
remember my mothers words precisely: "Ad'm, there is something that we
have been meaning to tell you but your father would not have me. We are
not your real parents. We adopted you when you were very young. Your
real father is a pirate who roams the galaxies. We do not know your
mother. I am sorry that we have never told you but we considered you as
our own. We love you Ad'm." 

At the time, I remember thinking that I should have been completely
shocked and horrified but I was not. It was almost as if I knew throughout
my entire childhood that these people were not like me. They were not
blood. 

We said our goodbyes and I was off to join the Royal Fighters under direct
command of the Majestrix Shi'ar. I flew routine training missions and
studied hard. Only one out of fifty trainees are chosen to become pilots
but they said that I had a natural feel for the cockpit and my flying
abilities were instinctual. I graduated cadet school and became a Shi'ar
Royal Pilot defending the mothership of the Shi'ar race. 

Then one day on a routine mission patrolling the space around the Terran
Homeworld, I noticed Earth. It almost beckoned to me and called out to me.
I was absolutely fascinated by everything about it. It's people had a
sparkle like none other I have ever known. More than that, I was drawn to
it by something...emotional. That moment was one that I would never
forget. The only thing that could ever matter to me was being on that
planet. I didn't have a care who or what would stop me. I didn't have a
care about the past or the people that I was leaving behind. None of them
mattered. 

I knew right away that I would not be able to just leave the Royal
Fighters or I would be branded as a traitor. If I had said that I suddenly
wanted to live on another planet, they would most assuredly retire me
from flight duty. A Royal Pilot is too valuable to just let go. I knew
that getting away from them would be difficult so I had to devise a plan. 

My wingmen on the flight were two of my closest companions in the Academy.
However I was to get away, I could not hurt either of them in anyway. I
also knew that I would have to convince them that I would not abandon
them. 

When we passed by Earth and started to move towards it's moon, I cut the
thrusters on the jet. My two wingmen roared by me before realizing that
they had lost me. By the time they had turned around to see where I was, I
had already begun to roll my ship end over end by bringing its pitch as
low as it could go. My wingmen stopped a safe distance and started to
radio that I was having ship malfunctions. I was able to start to
gradually fly towards earth, applying my thrusters and cutting them,
giving the appearance of uncontrollability. Our mother ship let us all
know that a tow was on its way and would be here in twenty minutes (earth
time). My wingmen started to disperse and follow me towards earth
cautiously. 

I started to fire my laser cannons rapidly and randomly around the area
and reported that I was again having problems with my craft. My wingmen
fell in behind me to stay away from the laser fire. I fired a torpedo
straight ahead and screamed that it was in "dumb" mode and posed no
threat. After it was safely a few hundred feet away, I changed the
torpedo's lock to my craft and the torpedo quickly rolled and started to
head for my ship. I screamed into my radio, "It locked me, it locked me!"
My wingmen, who were among the best at the time reacted instinctively and
professionally. They immediately thrust past me to engage the torpedo
before it could strike me. They fired quickly and accurately, safely
exploding the torpedo out of range. Once the torpedo was no longer a
threat I had a wide open shot at both of their engines. 

I fired my laser cannons quickly while spinning my ship. I knew that I
only had one chance at getting this right. I hit one engine of my wingmen
and swung around and sprayed the other. They were dead in space and I was
free to go. After a short apology, I complained of malfunctions and
started to smash my radio. I engaged just enough thruster to swerve around
a fly to earth, all the while screaming that I was picking up speed and
was going to crash. Before completely destroying my radio, I made several
Shi'ar loyal comments to help my facade such as "For the Princess!" and
"I die for the Empire." 

Apparently they believed much of my deception. After I had safely landed
on Earth, I remotely crashed my ship in the middle of an American Military
Facility known as Roswell, New Mexico. My Shi'ar comrades flew several
reconnaissance missions but the remnants of my craft were safely picked
up by the American government. They were very efficient. You would think
they'd done it before.

And that is how I came to this planet.


Nate turns his head towards Adam and raises his eyebrows. "Huh? Did you
say something?" Nate asks. 

Adam replies by kicking sand in Nate's face. They both laugh.

Nate wipes the sand from his forehead and exclaims, "Now THAT is a story!
I had no idea that you were really from another world." 

"Like I said, not a world. Just from the stars." Adam replies.

"So you sort of really are an orphan then. You're literally an orphan."
Nate says. 

"Yes. After realizing such, I decided that I would change my name to
something more...human. I chose the name Adam because it is so close to my
original Shi'ar name. I dropped the last name of Li'wanje because it
technically is not my name." Adam says as he stands. 

Nate brushes his hands together to remove the sand and then stands up. He
brushes the sand from his knees and says, "So now that you're here, why're
you wanted by that assassin in the Murdercraft? Remember? Back in Paris?" 

"Arcade is an assassin for hire. He'll kill anyone, anywhere, anytime. Of
course, he'll never face me in person. He would not dare come within range
of my mutant powers." Adam replies. 

"Cool. You have powers too?" Nate says.

"Yes, I have the ability to ignite certain anion electrolytes in other
peoples blood stream. I'm not quite certain how that works." Adam says as
he starts to walk down towards the shore. 

Nate follows and picks up sea shells along the way.

"So what about you Nate? You haven't told me where you come from or how
you got here." Adam asks.

"Well. Certainly nothing as dramatic as what you've told me." Nate says. 

Adam takes a seat in the sand in front of the rolling waves and turns his
baseball cap around. Nate throws a few shells into the waves and begins
his tale. 


I guess I came from Earth. Not this Earth though. Definitely a different
timeline or something. Where I came from there was this guy called
Apocalypse who ruled most of the planet. He wanted nothing more than to
watch everyone in the whole world kill each other. He had this ideal about
'survival of the fittest'. I personally always thought it was just a big
excuse. It gave people a reason to pick on weaklings and defenseless
humans. The mutants ruled the Earth and the humans ran for shelter
wherever they could find it. If they could find it all, that is. 

It was a pretty sick world. I was told by the Sinister from my world that 
he created me for the sole purpose of destroying Apocalypse. Well 
naturally, that kinda pissed me off because I don't remember ever having 
a childhood or parents or anything, I just started...existing one day. Imagine 
someone telling you that you're their lab experiment and you don't really 
have a life of your own. I guess it must've felt kind of like when your 
parents told you that you were an orphan. You feel kind of lonely and 
pissed off. But anyways he told me all these things after he killed the only 
person who I ever considered family and that was the straw that broke the 
camel's back or however that phrase goes. It set me off, let's just say that. 
I ran off and tried to kill Apocalypse but I had to fight his son, Holocaust the 
Horseman. I never even had a chance to fight Apocalypse because Holocaust 
kept getting in my way. So I was about ready to dish it out on Apocalypse 
when Magneto and the other X-Men started tearing the place apart. Even 
Magneto himself was getting pummeled and I was ready to kick some ass. 
Then Holocaust stepped in again and I stuck him. I mean I *STUCK* him with 
this crystal I took from Apocalypse.

That's when the crazy stuff began. Right after I stuck Holocaust with it I
was turning it and pushing it in trying to make the punk feel the
pain...and then it happened. And man was it crazy. All of a sudden it felt
like my whole body was being sucked into this little crystal thing and I
could see Holocaust being sucked into it too. Then I was floating in space
and there was no one around me, it was just me. I saw two Earths floating
in the distance and they were both just covered in crystals like the one
that I stuck Holocaust with. But anyways they started to come together and
I thought they were going to collide and explode but instead they just
sorta merged and where they had merged, the crystals disappeared.
Meanwhile, this whole thing is completely freaking me out. 

I thought the world was going to explode or that I was dead and this was
the last thing I was going to see. Then I heard this voice from behind me.
I turned around thinking that it was Holocaust or someone but it was this
little pink guy with white hair who I've never seen before in my whole
life. So I asked him what was going on and he said something like "The
times are right, and you have accomplished what you needed to. You are
special, to have witnessed and transcended what has happened here." 

Naturally, since he's being all cryptic like, I was thinking that this was
some sort of bad dream. Then he started going on again. Now he was saying
"You are unique. Even though there are others like you, you are different.
Though the plight of those similar to you are yet realized, you have
something they will envy. You are released from your birth right and have
the freedom to hammer out your own destiny." 

Whoa. This guy is talking like he's God himself. The only thing I could
even figure out was the birth right thing. I think I figured it out, at
least. I imagine he meant was that I had done my part to kill
Apocalypse. Although that sounds more like a destiny or a burden than a
right. I guess that since Sinister supposedly created me to kill
Apocalypse, somehow I had to. I think that's what it means at least. Okay,
I'll be honest...I have no idea what he was talking about. I guess I'm
lucky, I don't have to worry about Apocalypse anymore. He's obviously not
around killing everyone here, right? 

So after all that happened I started to ask the little pink guy what he
meant by it all. I was asking, "What do you mean? What is my birth right?
Who are you? What happened?" And then all of a sudden, I'm being thrown
back down to Earth. I start falling and screaming thinking that I'm going
to die. 

Next thing I know I'm hurtling towards Earth and I'm starting to get
mighty hot. I throw up a TK shield and eventually pass out. Next thing I
know, I'm sitting in a gigantic snow crater with a headache the size of
a Sentinel. And that's about it. That's how I got here.


"Interesting" Adam responds.

"Isn't it though? I guess we both fell to Earth...like falling stars or
something" Nate replies. 

The two stand up and start to walk back towards the shade of the trees. 

"I meant that it was interesting about the two worlds covered in crystals.
My race, the Shi'ar people are responsible for protecting the nexus of all
realties, the M'kraan crystal. It is the point from which all of reality
is held together," Adam says while using his hands to try and illustrate
his meaning, "While I was still a trainee in cadet school, the M'kraan
Crystal was endangered but repaired by a human woman. I couldn't begin to
imagine what would happen had it not been repaired." 

Nate stops and looks at Adam. Neither of them realize how ironic it is
that Nate is a by-product of just such a possibility. Nor do they realize
that the entity responsible for fixing the M'kraan Crystal was the Phoenix
Force that Nate battled only weeks ago. All they can think of is how
different they are from each other. 

"So you think you're from a different time?" Adam asks.

"That's what I think. Even that little Blaquesmith dude said I was not
from this world, but where I came from we called it Earth and everything
looked really similar geographically" Nate says. 

"Well then. It's settled. We are both complete strangers in this whole
world, even though I've been here a few months longer than you have," Adam
says as he puts his hand on Nate's back. 

"Cool. Well...what do we do next?" Nate wonders, "If this really is
another timeline then that means there are people who I sort of know. I
mean, I knew them in my world. Maybe they'll know me," Nate stops walking
and starts snapping his fingers, he looks wide eyed at Adam and says,
"Maybe I have a duplicate in this timeline? It sounds pretty stupid, but
maybe we can go and find...me." 

"I suppose that figuring out who you are entails finding yourself first"
Adam says. 

"Who would've expected you to say something so Zen" Nate says while
laughing.

"But it's completely true. There must be another one like you. The specter
in your story said so himself" Adam says, "We have to look for another
Nate. Do you go by another name?" 

Nate stops and looks at Adam, puzzled. He thinks for a moment and then
asks, "Umm...another name?" 

"Yes. It seems that a lot of people here go by surnames or nicknames. I've
encountered lots of people on this planet who use one name that has
completely nothing to do with their real name. You don't think Sinister
had a mother with a twisted sense of hum or, do you?" Adam responds. 

"Well, I've never really gone by anything other than Nate. Do you have
another name?" he asks. 

"I have gone by the name X-Treme on occasion. I think it reflects how I
change other people's body temperatures at will. Sort of one extreme to
the other. A play on words." Adam responds. 

"Well," Nate says after a few seconds, "All the X-Men had cool names, too.
I was always told that someday I would join Magneto and his X-Men. I
always wanted to be an X-Man" 

"Then X-Man it is" Adam says loudly.

Nate, for the third time, stops dead in his tracks. It seems that every
time Adam says something shocking or unbelievable, he always comes up with
something more shocking and unbelievable. Nate wonders if Adam has a
special mutant ability to surprise people, or take them too seriously. 

"Sure. Whatever. Call me Nate, will ya?" Nate asks.

Adam starts to walk off towards the island roads. Nate quickly gives
chase. 

"Well? We've been on this island for almost 3 weeks now. Pretty soon, the
residents of that house are gonna come back and then we're out of there. I
know I'd be pretty mad if I found a whole bunch of complete strangers had
been living in my house while I was away" Nate states. 

"I know for a fact that they will not be back for another 4 more days but
we won't be staying that long," Adam remarks, "Tomorrow, we begin to
figure out why we are on this great rock called Earth. Tomorrow, we find
that new destiny you were told about. Tomorrow, we seek adventure!" 

This time, Nate doesn't even stop. His instincts tell him that he should
stop whatever he is doing and look surprised, because this has been the
most shocking thing Adam has said thus far. But he doesn't stop or blink,
or look surprised, he just continues walking.

For the past 3 weeks he has had a chance to unwind and to not even think
about the gift that birth bestowed upon him. He hasn't once thought about
fighting off would be attackers or usurpers, and he certainly hasn't
thought about adventure. All that has been on his mind for the past 3
weeks is finding pleasure in relaxing. For once he had a chance to think
about the food that he was consuming and the nuances of the pretty island
women. He was content to count the grains of sand or observe the whales
surfacing on the coast. It was a solitude and a peace that was far too
short for his liking. His mind blazes with thoughts of what is to come and
battles to be fought. 

Nate looks upward and stares at the night sky again. Adam yells back to
him, "Nate? Is everything okay?" 

"Just stargazing again," Nate yells. He lowers his voice and mutters to
himself, "I might not get this chance again for another few years." 


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Next issue - Nate and Adam begin their search for answers, but the
questions are only piling up as Blaquesmith resurfaces.