The Scott and Jean Archives
Doctor Doom is looking to hire a “freelance assassin”. Sidestep, with the “ability to manipulate the time stream”, presents himself as a candidate to Doom.
To demonstrate his ability, Sidestep has plucked Excalibur and the “original X-Men”, and thrown them into “stasis”. Doom wants Excalibur destroyed. Sidestep suggests that he “temporarily rearrange the original X-Men’s thought patterns” in hopes that they will be able to take care of Excalibur.
The first screen shows Captain Britain taken out by Cyclops’ optic blast. These two have been displaced to the “American Revolutionary War”, where “Cyclops believes he’s an American rebel in 1776. Captain Britain does not want to attack Cyclops, but Cyclops leaves him no choice with his persistent attacks. Despite Cyclops’ tricking Captain Britain under a felling tree, Captain Britain manages to overpower and subdue Cyclops.
Screen two takes them to “a fire-fight over war-torn London”. Meggan is being pursued by Angel. In the middle of his “aerial pursuit”, Angel’s gun is jammed. This gives Meggan time to distance herself from Angel while he reloads his gun. Meggan gauges her speed and trajectory, and tricks Angel into flying head first into Big Ben, rendering him unconscious.
The screen cuts to the third broadcast where Kylun has been sent back to “the dawn of time”. There he comes face-to-face with Iceman, who is barely a match for him. But they are both soon chased by a T-Rex. Kylun and Iceman decide to put their differences aside and help each other defeat the T-Rex.
On screen four, Nightcrawler finds himself trapped during the “fall of the Roman Empire”. He takes care to hide in the shadows, until he is discovered by “Gladiator Hank”. Nightcrawler uses his acrobatic skills to his advantage, dodging Gladiator Hank’s moves, as well as his teleportation abilities to finally knock him out.
Screen five shows Shadowcat witnessing “King Arthur’s final battle”. King Arthur surrenders his sword Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake as he is mortally wounded. Marvel Girl shows up to claim Excalibur while Shadowcat tries to stop her. As Marvel Girl’s telekinesis has not “fully developedyet”, Shadowcat has the upper hand as she has mastery of her powers. With some calculated moves, Shadowcat stops Marvel Girl and returns Excalibur to its rightful owner.
On screen six, Cerise is being worshipped by the people as their saviour from the giant machine out to kill them. It turns out that the machine is operated by Xavier. The mechanical beast is no match for Cerise’s power, so Xavier resorts to attacking her mentally. But in doing so, Xavier learns the truth behind all the illusions, that “somehow, [they] were all shifted sideways through time”. Xavier appears to die in Cerise’s illusion.
Suddenly, the X-Men and Excalibur are transported back to the X-Men’s timeline. The X-Men are under the impression that Excalibur murdered Xavier, so they retaliate against Excalibur. Xavier’s consciousness reaches out to Nightcrawler for help, pulling him onto the Astral Plane. Xavier discovered the secret of Sidestep’s powers, obtained from Kree armour.
With Nightcrawler’s help, Xavier’s mind is returned to his body, and Sidestep stripped of his Kree powers. The fighting between the X-Men and Excalibur seizes. Doctor Doom is not amused by this turn of events and annihilates Sidestep.