As the hazy purple horizon of the Astral Plane took shape around us, Rogue grabbed my elbow.

"Quit it!' I yelled, jerking my arm away. You see Rogue was now like 8 feet tall and really burley. Ever since she and Kodiak tongue wrestled, she has been half hot chick, half Sasquatch. She had grabbed my arm way too hard.

"Oh, Ah's sorry 'bout that Scott," she said in a deep bass voice. "Ah don't quite know mah own strength. Ah should be back tah normal in about an hour."

"That's great," I replied. "Thanks for the update. Now if you don't mind, we've got to find the Professor somewhere in this soup. I thought the Martian was suppose to be homing in on him telepathically?"

"That's what Ah wanted tah tell ya, sughar," she replied in a deep growl. "That Martian is sayin' all kinds a crazy stuff."

I walked over to J'onn and heard him babbling something about a crisis and a dog. Then he started howling. Before I knew it he went stiff as a board and fell over unconsciousness. I was about to try and check him out when I heard this high-pitched shriek coming from behind me. We all whirled around and saw Hudson frozen in terror.

I looked over at Warbird who was standing next to him. "He was saying all this silly macho stuff about dropping the H-Bomb on the bad guys. Trying to impress me I think," Warbird said with a snort.

Hurrying over to Hudson I could see that he was trying to mumble something. I leaned in close, putting my ear right next to his mouth.

" . . buh . . buh . . behind you . . ," I heard him say. Behind you? What could he mean by that?

"Cyke," said Wolverine. "Over there."

I turned around to where he was pointing and saw a huge giant 60 foot tall head hurtling towards us. I felt my knees go weak and I think I squirted a little bit of pee.



"Isn't that Xavier?" Kodiak asked.

I looked again and realized that it was the Professor's face. As it approached, it got smaller and smaller until it was normal sized. Before I knew it, the Professor was standing there between all of us. Jean, in her regular colored green Phoenix outfit, flew down out of the sky and landed next to him.

"Oh, uh," I said.

"What took you so long Scott?" the Professor asked. "I had to solve this Dark Phoenix thing by myself."

"Oh, well, we uh, rushed and, um, everything but, uh . ."

"No matter. I'm glad you're here. You can escort Jean back to the school while I return to Hacknor where my body is. Only my astral self is here which is why I can change my shape and form. Jean and the rest of you are here in your physical forms, so you are more limited."

"Oh, uh, sure, I knew that," I said. "We'll take Jean back." I looked over at her but she was staring at Logan, her eyes slowly running up and down his body. I felt my cheeks getting red.

"Aarrghggghhh!" said the Martian.

We all turned around. He was floating over the ground, such as it was, and strange tendrils of black energy were swirling around his head.

"Oh no!" shouted the Professor. "I'm sensing a presence that I thought was gone forever!"

Well this can't be good.