Down The Rabbit Hole Exiles #1 Story: Judd Winick Pencils: Mike McKone Inks: Mark McKenna Colors: JC Letters: Sharpefont's Paul Tutrone Assistant Editor: Mike Raicht Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada President: Bill Jemas

Brief Description: Six heroes from different realities become unhinged from time and end up in the middle of nowhen. They are greeted by the Time Broker who explains that their timelines have been altered by ripples in time, but they have been given the chance to change them back.

Full Synopsis: The place is absolutely nowhere. The location is absolutely nowhen. It is a desert wasteland that Blink has plummeted into from climatic battle with Apocalypse at his Citadel in the Age of Apcalypse. She asks where everyone is when a Blue Female tells her not to complain so much. At least Blink has clothes on. Blink replies that the Girl looks like Nightcrawler. She says that Blink does as well, sort of, but that her excuse is probably more reasonable. Kurt Wagner is her father. She is Talia Josephine Wagner or simply T.J.

T.J. asks Blink how she knew her father and Blink tells her that they used to fight in the X-Men together, but Blink doesn't remember Kurt ever having a daughter. In turn, T.J. asks when Blink was an X-Man because she can't recall ever seeing her and X-History is required reading at her school. They begin to argue when Morph crashes from the sky. Blink runs to Morph gleefully, happy to see that he is alive. She clings to Morph and tells him how she wasn't sure if they were going to survive the battle they were in and asks him if he knew what that portal was that brought them here bcause it wasn't one of her own. She then inquires as to where all the others are when Morph tells her that he doesn't know what or who she is talking about. On top of that, he doesn't even know who Blink is, but that can change.

Blink stops hugging Morph and asks T.J. and Morph what they were both doing before they got here. Morph says that he was fighting alongside his fellow X-Men and battling the cursed Stonehenge! T.J. asks who Stonehenge is. Morph says that was their point as well, "Who are you, dude? Why are you dressed like a druid and setting things on fire with your feet?" That was when he got sucked into a giant glowing hole, fell down here, and Blink started groping him. T.J. says ditto for her, minus the hugging and the druid with the flaming tootsies. She was in bed. A Big, Burly Fellow emerges saying that he was in bed as well being being transported here, wherever here is.

Morph says the man is a Big 'Un and T.J. asks him if he is James Proudstar. The man replies that he is not. His name is John Proudstar. T.J. tells John that he reminds her of his brother. John regretfully informs T.J. that James is dead, but T.J. claims to have seen him just last night. It's John that should be dead. Morph asks Blink if she's following this and she tells him not particularly. T.J. turns around and tells Morph that he was never in the X-Men either. Morph retorts that he is and he has I.D. Cards, a Room at the Mansion, and Sweatsuits with X's on them to prove it. Blink comments that she doesn't think anything is as it seems. Another portal opens up and John says that they're not alone anymore.

A Winged Man descends upon the group and asks the gang if they're as lost as he is. T.J. says she knows this one, his name is Mimic and he was an X-Man for ten minutes a zillion years ago. Morph asks if it's a literal zillion or a cute overstatement. Another Man in Red approaches the crew from behind. His name is Magnus and he tells the other Exiles he is in the dark as well, though he is reasonably sure where they are supposed to be heading and points to a kitchen without any walls that is off in the distance.

Blink teleports the six of them over to the Kitchen and Mimic demands some answers from the Gentleman dressed in a Vest and Tie sorting through glasses in the cupboards. He tells them to grab a chair and asks who wants coffee or a danish. He looks for a bear claw when Proudstar picks him up by his shirt. He says, in that case, they won't serve any pastries. Mimic asks what is with the mind tricks and if they're something from Mysterio or Mastermind. The man asks them to relax for a moment and tells them that they are all fighters of the good that rely on their instincts, so they should concentrate on what they feel and what are their guts telling them now? This is not a dream. He is not a threat. No one is messing with their noggins. This is not some ruse of a super baddie. This is real... and they are in serious trouble.

The team settles down and gets comfortable. Mimic asks if any of them are buying this. Blink says that she sense they're in deep, but this man has nothing to do with it. Morph asks T.J. if she's a fan of the Butt Monkeys or if she just likes the fit of the jersey. T.J. replies that the Butt Monkeys are her band and Morph is just making an excuse to look at her chest. After coffee is distrubuted, the Man in the Kitchen begins to explain that they are all from different dimensions, alternate realities, and that should explain some of the confusion. With that in mind, he calls up a flat screen television to get a little history on each of them and the worlds that they come from.

Talia Josephine "T.J." Wagner, also known as Nocturne, was raised under the watchful eye of her parents and under the tutelage of Charles Xavier's School. She quickly moved up the ranks to be an X-Man in her own right. It is a life she loves.

John Proudstar is Thunderbird, hand picked by Professor X to join his second incarnation of the X-Men where he would capture the attention of Apocalypse. He was made a disciple, enhanced, and reformed, but his servitude was short-lived and his indomitable spirit, tortured into rage, set him free and he returned to the X-Men, but not as the same man.

Magnus is the child of Magneto and Rogue. It was obvious to all that Magnus would become even more adept, more powerful than the master of magnetism who sired him, but he adopted a trait not unlike one of his mother's. When his flesh mets another's, they are transformed into pure steel.

The jovial Morph has met with nothing but success. He took to training his shape-shifting abilities with an enthusiasm and humor that both ingratiated and annoyed. He began as a New Mutant, then an X-Man, then even an Avenger, but returned home, rejoining the team that is also his family, the X-Men.

Mimic is A young man with the ability to copy the powers of others. Born into poverty and fueled by rage, the young Calvin Rankin found himself drawn towards darker elements. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Professor Charles Xavier saw past the arrogance and reached out to the young man as no one had before. Calvin would join the School and thrive in its teachings. As a grown man, he now leads the X-Men.

Then there is Blink. Like many mutants born into the Age of Apocalypse, she was ripped from her home as a child. She grew up in a miserable hell called the pens where she was subjected daily to medical experiments and alterations of her genetic make-up. Salvation arrived in the form of Victor Creed and, under his watchful eye, she became a member of her world's X-Men.

The good news is that they're an amazing, talented, and eclectic group. The bad news is that they've all come undone in time. He explains that he is a Time Broker. That is his function. Time itself is like a living being with shape, motion, and growth. It's like a long strand of DNA and there are chains all along the strands that make up various realities. Trillions upon trillions of them. Just as with actual DNA, there are bad strands that produce malformations, sudden breaks, cracks, bumps in the chain. In most cases, they don't affect much of anything. You buy a different car, miss a lunch date, your VCR doesn't record, or nothing at all. Unfortunately, there are also breaks that cause a domino effect in parallel worlds. This is what has happened to each of them and because of this ripple effect, new events in their past have transpired and altered each of the paths they now live.

Magnus accidentally killed his mother, causing his father to resume his battle on humanity. On his first mission with the Brotherhood, the unsuccessful kidnapping of Senator Robert Kelly that saw the death fo 47 inoocent bystanders, Mimic was captured and now sits on death row. Morph was injured in a battle against the Morlocks while with the New Mutants and his physical composition was disrupted. He is now comatose in liquid form, resting within a beaker in Hank McCoy's Lab. Nocturne's father was killed during a battle with the Hellfire Club at the hand of her grandmother Mystique. Thunderbid never wrested yourself from Apocalypse's grasp and remained his soldier, his servant. Blink was never born.

Their lives have been re-written, but they have been given the opportunity to change them back by repairing the breaks in the chain of time that caused these ripples. Though these breaks will not appear to directly affect them, they are part of the domino affect that must be re-aligned in order to get their lives back. If successful, they will return to exactly when they left, unaged and unchanged, but the dangers are real and they can be injured and die. If they fail, they will return to the unfortunate new crscumstances except for Blink because she was never born.

The Time Broker hands Blink the Tallus and tells them that it will be their guide, instructing them as best it can on what is needed to repair the breaks Once a task is completed, they can move on to their next reality using the Tallus in conjuction with Blink's teleportation power. Blink asks if the Time Broker is coming with them to help. He replies that he isn't and that he doesn't even exist in the conventional sense. He and the desert they are in are constructs created from the collective consciousness of each of the group. He is how they are dealing with their trauma. They're freaking out and they don't even know it. The Time Broker begins to fade, says that he will be in touch here and there, and wishes them good luck. Mimic starts after him as the team starts blinking to their first mission.

Magnus asks where they are and Blink replies that they are 33 miles outside of Phoenix. Mimic asks her how she knows that and she points to a road sign that reads Phoenix, 33 miles. She informs her crew that the Tallus says they are supposed to find, "The one who would lead us..." Mimic and Nocturne asks when the Tallus said that as Blink tells them that it just said it again, but the others can't hear the Tallus. Nocturne asks if they can get out of the desert and get her some clothes. Magnus suggest that they go shopping.

The team break into the Meltzer-Flam Mall outside of Phoenix. Morph pokes around on the Internet to discover more about this reality when he finds a surprising absence of Super Beings and Mutants. No X-Men, no School for Gifted Youngsters, no Fantastic Four, no Avengers... The Tallus sends Blink another bulletin. This world decided long ago to have Zero Tolerance for Homo Superior and Super Beings. They've all been jailed, executed, or aborted. It's been going on for 50 years.

Nocturne and Thunderbird return with new duds and Morph comments that they were both wearing more clothes before the new outfits. Nocturne tells Morph that Thunderbid actually found his clothes in one of those "Big Gals" Clothing Stores, but she promised she wouldn't tell as long as he didn't mention that he saw her naked. Morph asks if she cares that he saw her naked. She replies that she doesn't, but she wanted Thunderbird to feel like he had some leverage. The Tallus continues talking, "...Find the one who would lead you. Find your greatest teacher." Mimic, Nocturne, and Magnus all answer at once: Charles Xavier.

Blink says that she guesses it could be him, but Mimic says it's no guess. He asks her if the Tallus is saying, "No," but it isn't. Magnus says that he could make a Cerebro, but they would need a telepath to operate it. Mimic has some limited residual telepathy from when he mimicked Jean Grey and Nocturne was born with a little. A Cerebro is fashioned and the two are hooked up. Magnus tries to compensate for their lack of psionic ability with electrical power, but they would still need to exert themselves. They push themselves to the limit and the Cerebro explodes, but not before they locate the Professor. He is in Nevada and, more importantly, he is alive.

The group arrives at the holding facility where Xavier is being held in the Nevada Desert. The team consensus was that a world without Reed Richards, Tony Stark, or Bruce Banner would not have made the technilogical leaps that other realities would. The ease with which they hacked into a Maximum Security prion camp's mainframe from a computer at a shopping mall only futher validated that hypothesis. They even blackened half of Phoenix while siphoning power for Cerebro without raising an eyebrow. This bolstered the group with brimming overconfidence for the jail break. They tripped every sensor that was turned on and a few that weren't. Needless to say, things did not go according to plan with their Stealth Approach.

As Mimic, Nocturne, and Morph battle a flurry of guards, the rest of the team carries out Plan B. It was your basic rule of magic: Distraction. Make a big noise in one direction while you substitute the showgirl for the White Siberian Tiger. For their distraction, Thunderbird was a very impressive looking tiger. Proudstar rips through a wall and takes on an entire sector by his lonesome. As they call for back-up, Blink and Magnus teleport to the floor where Xavier is being held. She says that she should have gone ahead and done a little recon before 'porting the entire team in, but no... Magnus replies that he's sure everyone would agree with her in hindsight, but that they should just do what they came here for instead of arguing.

They move towards Holding Cell 9 where Magnus causes the steel door to dissipate with a gesture of his hand. The Professor is encased inside of an enormous contraption that nullifies his psychic powers. Magnus tells Xavier that the worst is over as Blink relays a radio message to the rest of the squad that they have Xavier. A few levels above, Mimic shields Nocturne with a Steel Wing as Morph swings into action. Thunderbird says he is going to head back to the upper levels so he can get out on foot in case they can't teleport when Blink appears to evacuate the team.

Outside, the team gathers around Xavier and Nocturne asks if they should get him medical attention. Mimic replies that it's not safe to take him to a hospital. Magnus tells them that Xavier will be okay, he just performed the equivalent of microsurgery in order to remove all the wirings from the Professor's head and they probably pumped him full of drugs, so he just needs some time to recover. Mimic agrees with Magnus and suggests they find cover where the Professor can recuperate. Nocturne comments that she doesn't think he's a professor on this world...

Mimic begans to plan a course of action for the group when Xavier begins to come to. The now conscious Xavier asks if he is free. Mimic tells them that he is free and, though Xavier does not know who they are, he assures him that they are here to help. Nocturne says that they will tell him everything he needs to know, but Xavier chides her by saying he already knows everything because he is inside their heads. Xavier lets loose a psychic attack that knocks the team to the ground. He screams out that he is no teacher for the likes of them. He would sooner die than help create a society where mutants and humans lived together. They are homo superior, the next evolutionary step, and it is time for them to assume their place in the world beginning with the extermination of a species.