After the previous setup issue this one is full of action. Fun fight!
Absalom, Saul, and Nicodemus square up with the X-Corps strike team, Saul saying that they will not trespass any further. Betsy says they can't let these three Externals slow them down and tells Dani to go on with "big bloke" Thunderbird while she and the boys (Rictor and Shatterstar) handle them. Dani hesitates as she's concerned about them taking on three Externals and John doesn't want to run from this fight. But Betsy tells him to run to the next fight to trust that she and the boys know what they're doing.
Rictor summons large pieces of jagged rock from the ground and Betsy runs up one, takes to the air and comes down with her sword which is blocked by Saul with his hand. He grows and transforms into a massive dragon, telling her she faces the wisdom of millennia and the savagery...
"It's an old story, Saul - and the winner's always the same", she says as she elegantly flys over his swiping arm. Shatterstar and Absalom start brawling and Nicodemus fires a fire blast at a rock wall Rictor summons. Rictor suggests that he and Shatterstar swap partners (haha) so Shatterstar slashes at Nicodemus while Rictor launches rocks at Absalom.
Saul says Betsy is a vessel for magic beyond her understanding and that she carries a responsibility beyond her bearing. He charges his tail with energy and fires at her.
"... I'd put the old family fortune to shame." (Hello, big beautiful butterfly.) Saul says Merlin is a pup. He swings a wing at her but she jumps up and onto his back. Betsy says maybe but all her doubters, young and old, all end up the same. "Sad. Shattered. Humbled... like the withered fools they are" as she drives her sword into his back with a "SHUNK", Saul shrieking in pain.
John and Dani are running through the forest, Dani saying that her psychic awareness should tip her off before they ram into the invisible barrier. Luckily in their cockiness the Externals left the shield open when they attacked the group, allowing John and Dani inside the inner city. She says they left the barn door wide open.
They easily take out a bunch of Orchis zombie soldiers then spot the pens where the kidnapped mutants are being held. John hoists Dani up and launches her into the air so she can get over the wall of one of the pens, taking out more soldiers with her psychic arrows. He easily follows her by jumping over the wall. They grab hold of the iron bars of one of the cells but before they can do anything more, Crule appears. He asked John if they should finished what they started and John says he feels like he's been waiting on those words forever, "you purple $%@#&%. Let's go."
Next: Crule, Crule summer!