Issue
Synopsis:
Issue
#30:
Spectre
spends all his free time with his thoughts on the battles that have
recently occurred, with his focus being on his old friends and the hero
Nocturne.
With those thoughts in mind, he visits the hospital where Firefox
is recovering.
Content with the knowledge that she is not dead and may make a
full recovery, Morgan leaves without being noticed.
With his thoughts of his past still plaguing him, Spectre decides
to call his mother to find out how she has been doing.
He has not seen her since he moved back into the city, but knows
that she recently remarried.
After an amiable conversation, Morgan tells his mother that he
would like to come and visit her.
Morgan figures that this will also give him an opportunity to
look into his past to figure out why Shao-Lin turned to crime.
He offers Monica to join him, but she declines, telling him that
she wouldn’t feel very comfortable since she’s not 100% certain
where the two of them stand.
Morgan bids her farewell, telling her that he loves her, and
drives to upstate New York.
Morgan makes his way to his mother’s new house, which is more
of a rather large estate, security gates and brick walls included.
Morgan enters, parks, and walks around to the front of the house,
only to see his mother waiting to greet him.
She kindly takes him in, handing his jacket to the butler, and
informs Morgan that his new stepfather has dinner guests.
She invites Morgan to join them and the pair walk into the dining
room. His
mother introduces him to his new stepfather, who happens to be a
freelance scientific researcher by the name of David Bannon.
His guests are named Geoffrey Lohgig and Dr. Carla Wethers.
Morgan sits down to an exquisite dinner while discussing some
very hot topics.
They begin by talking about the physics of light and properties
of radiation, with Morgan mentioning that he’s living with a girl
he’s not dating and that he’s lost his job.
Morgan’s mother is very interested in hearing more about this,
but tells him that the two of them will talk privately later.
The conversation heats up as the three scientists begin to talk
about their views on mutants and what should be done with them.
Morgan gets deeply rooted into this conversation and begins to
get angry with Dr. Carla Wethers, who is growing angry and frustrated in
return.
Sensing this, David breaks up the conversation, and politely bids
his peers a good night.
After making certain that Morgan isn’t uncomfortable, David
announces that he’s going downstairs to his lab to work, and his
mother tries to talk about Morgan’s current situation.
Morgan buys time by going out for a walk, sorting his thoughts
and calming himself down.
Morgan explains his situation with Monica, and reassures his
mother that nothing bad is going on.
Feeling a heartfelt bond at that very moment, Morgan confesses to
his mother that he is a mutant with psionic powers.
However, as he tries to demonstrate his powers, they don’t seem
to work.
Panicked, Morgan begins exclaiming out loud his worries
concerning his lack of powers.
At just that moment, David walks into the room and, hearing
Morgan get excited, asks what the two were talking about.
Morgan’s mother covers for him, and David returns to his lab.
She then tells Morgan to head up to bed, and maybe everything
will be fine in the morning.
Morgan showers, tries to use his powers alone, and even goes
outside, but to no avail.
He decides to go into his room and call Monica to explain
everything to her, but thinks better of it, since he’s not quite
certain exactly what’s going on.
His mind is scrambling for answers, from being poisoned by the
food to super villain involvement.
Frustrated, Morgan decides to look through his old yearbooks to
spark any unusual memories.
Thumbing through it with a magnifying glass, he comes across the
picture of the bully named Adam, participating in a fundraiser.
He begins to overlook the picture when he notices and odd glare
reflected in Adam’s eyes.
Upon closer inspection, the glare in his eyes takes the shape of
a pair of mushroom clouds....
Issue
#31:
Recovering
from his discovery, Morgan remembers that his stepfather mentioned that
he was going to do some work in his lab, so he decides to explore the
house as well as the lab.
Morgan finds the door leading to the basement and deducts that
this must be where his stepfather’s lab is located.
The door is marked private, and when Morgan tries to open it, he
discovers that it is locked.
Suddenly, Morgan hears footsteps coming from the other side of
the door, and hides around a corner.
He sees his stepfather, David, come out from the door and into
the kitchen.
Morgan decides to use this opportunity to explore the lab when he
hears David talking on the phone and thinks better of it.
Instead Morgan heads over to the kitchen and begins to eavesdrop
on the conversation.
Morgan hears David mentions that Morgan is a mutant and begins to
explain what type of powers Morgan may have.
He also mentions that he has studied Morgan’s family tree and
seems surprised that the person on the other end of the phone has met
Morgan, without Morgan’s knowledge.
David mentions a few more comments that incriminate him further,
and finishes up his phone conversation.
Morgan quickly heads down into the lab and waits for David.
David, however, goes outside to the front gate to meet the
courier that will deliver David’s research to its mysterious
destination.
Morgan, tired of waiting, begins to investigate David’s lab,
until he hears footsteps from the hall above.
Morgan waits behind the door, and when David walks in, Morgan put
him in an incredibly painful martial arts hold.
So painful, in fact, that David passes out.
Morgan realizes that he’s too used to dealing with villains,
and needs to take it a little easier on the humans.
Morgan ties and gags David, then turns the lights out and waits
for him to awaken.
When David finally comes to, Morgan begins to interrogate him.
David claims that he works for a high-level government agency on
contract and that he does genetic research for them.
He explains how he helped develop the power dampening fields that
are commonly used in the government and in his own home.
David says that his lab automatically scans every person who
comes through his front door, to regulate any kind of threat against him
or his wife.
He continues to tell Morgan that he has a computer system that
helps to identify public mutant’s secret identities, and through a bit
of cross-referencing, he tells Morgan that he knows Morgan is Spectre.
David claims that his actual job is to analyze mutants for the
purpose of cataloging them.
The information he receives goes into a high-class government
database, which only a few, select, elite people can access.
He defends himself by telling Morgan that it is used so that the
government can effectively stop rogue mutants, who may be harming
society; to protect normal people, like his mother, from threats they
cannot defend against.
David convinces Morgan that everything will be fine as long as
Spectre doesn’t go on a crime spree so large that the government needs
to get involved.
Since Spectre is a hero, both David and Morgan agree that this
shouldn’t be a problem.
In a gesture of trust, David offers to lower the dampening fields
so that Morgan may read his mind, to see if he’s telling the truth or
not. Spectre
declines, trusting David, and asks David what he meant about the family
tree. David
informs Morgan that he always checks the family tree of any mutants he
studies, to look for any additional mutations or oddities.
David informs Morgan of an incredibly odd occurrence in his
family tree.
It seems that somewhere down the line, a distant cousin of
Spectre’s was a mutant.
The surprising fact was that it was in the 1800’s.
David has no other information regarding his family tree.
With everything settled, Morgan unties David and goes back
upstairs, to bed.
The
next morning, Morgan wakes early and flips through his old letters and
pictures.
He remembers that Tracy (Fluke) always had good luck, and funny,
embarrassing things always happened to people they didn’t like.
Finding nothing else, Morgan goes downstairs to greet David, who
tells him that he should go to a nearby park and demonstrate his powers
to his mother.
David states that she was expressing concerns about Morgan to him
this morning, and he thinks it would be a good idea.
Morgan does as David suggests and demonstrates his abilities to
his mother, who is a little freaked, but remains supportive.
He tells her that he uses his powers for good and that he’s a
super-hero.
She asks him who he is, and he tells her.
She has seen Spectre on TV before and she begins to worry
terribly.
Morgan calms her down a bit and takes her home.
He bids farewell to his mother and new stepfather, and leaves for
the city.
On the way home, he’s listening to news radio and hears that
the villain Strobe has robbed a jewelry store.
Morgan rushes home to find Monica cleaning the apartment, knowing
nothing of the incident.
Morgan wants to go out as Spectre (it is still daytime) and
investigate the Strobe robbery, as well as contact Lt. Fox.
Monica informs him that she imagined his return to her being a
little different, and convinces Morgan not to go by leading him into her
bedroom.