Madelyne Pryor (Joint Venture)

Madelyne Pryor is a long-time foe of the X-Men and the ex-wife of Cyclops. This is the Joint Venture Universe version of the character.

History
Madelyne Pryor is a woman with no past or records of existence in the Joint Venture Universe. This is because she hails from yet another unnumbered alternate timeline, and only exists in that universe due to a cmbination of extremely unlikely factors.

Flight 137

The story of Madelyne Pryor starts with a plane crash. Oncemerely an exceptional charter pilot with years of sterling service under her belt, Madelyne was landing a passenger plane at San Francisco Airport when one of her plane's engines exploded. She might have landed safely anyway, but the explosion detonated an illegally smuggled cache of explosive cargo in her plane's hold, and the entire aircraft exploded, crashing the last five hundred feet to the ground in a burning heap of twisted metal and charred bodies.

There were no survivors, save Madelyne herself, who despite being in the cockpit when it was engulfed in flames from the devastated instruments, walked out of the wreckage without a scratch on her. Witnesses say they saw the fire make a bird-like shape behind her as she emerged, but no video evidence exists that can confirm or debunk this.

The sole survivor of the crash, a devastated Madelyne spent a great deal of time receiving psychological therapy for her survivor's guilt.

Pole Star Airlines - Return to the Skies
Finally, some three years after the disaster, Madelyne returned to her job as a piot, this time operating out of Anchorage, Alaska. She worked for Phillip and Deborah Summers' privately-owned and operated Pole Star Airlines, sticking to small, private planes and short flights until she could regain her self-confidence. Over time, the pain and misery of her past slowly faded, and she even managed to save a young boy, Toby Ridge, from a plane crash similar to the one she had survived. In gratitude, Toby's father Colton invited her to take up permanent residence in his resort, free of charge. With few housing options, Madelyne accepted, since her current position had her spend less time in the air and away from home than her previous, and she would need a place to stay when not in the air.

It was on one of these flights that she met Phillip and Deborah's long-lost son, Air Force Major Christopher Summers, and his own adult children, Alex and Scott.

Scott & Madelyne
Madelyne felt an immediate attraction to Scott Summers, the quiet, troubled man who hid his face and feelings behind a pair of unique red sunglasses. However, he was initially cold and terse with her. keeping her at arm's length while simultaneously watching her intently when he thought she wouldn't notice. Despite this initial gulf, the attraction between the two was instant, and mutual, and within a matter of days they had gotten close. Scott seemed to know Madelyne inside and out almost overnight; he knew her taste in food and clothing, her temperament, her favorite colors, movies, and music, seemingly by guesswork alone.

Their first real date was something out of Madelyne's fondest dreams, and she started to wonder if Scott could somehow read her mind. However, that night she learned a chilling truth: that Scott had been in love with another woman, the late Jean Grey, who had had everything in common with Madelyne, right down to a nearly identical appearance. Unsure now if he loved her for who she was or who she resembled, Madelyne let Scott go. He planned to leave the next morning, a full two weeks before he was scheduled to fly back to New York. However, something happened that night that would change both of them forever.

Cyclops v. D'Spayre
While walking home that night, an awkward silence hanging between them, Scott and Madelyne were ambushed by a terrifying being known only as D'Spayre, who fed off negative emotions like loss, grief, and (as one might expect) despair. While Madelyne, a civilian, was utterly unprepared for this, Scott took this moment to reveal his true identity to her: Scott Summers was Cyclops, a mutant with powerful optic blasts, and the former leader of the superhero team known as the X-Men. During the battle, Madelyne saw a recreation of Scott's worst nightmare; the death of Jean Grey on the moon, sacrificing herself to save the universe from her terrifying alter ego, Dark Phoenix. In the throes of his emotional turmoil, he asked Madelyne if she was Phoenix reborn. She responded with an angry right cross to the face, which shocked Scott out of his fugue state and galvanized him into defeating the demon. With his worst fear faced and overcome, Scott expressed a desire to keep seeing Madelyne, to get to know her for herself, and an overjoyed Madelyne accepted.

"From the Ashes"
Scott and Madelyne continued to date each other, their relationship growing deeper and more intense, to the point that when Scott finally did return to New York, Madelyne came with him. He even took her to the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, where he had spent his adolescence (and met Jean for the first time), to meet the X-Men, whom he considered as much his family as his blood relatives. After their initial shock at seeing her had passed, Madelyne was surprised at how quickly she ended up fitting in with the team, despite not being a mutant or having any superhuman powers of her own.

It was here that the specter of Jean Grey reared its head again. Mastermind, an old enemy of the team, and the man responsible for her corruption into Dark Phoenix in the first place, trapped the X-Men in illusions, making them believe that Madelyne was Dark Phoenix reborn, and further, that she had killed Cyclops (as well as the entire population of New York City). However, Mastermind had not taken into account that Scott had made peace with the memory of Jean Grey, and thanks to the battle with D'Spayre, knew that Madelyne was not she.

Surviving Mastermind's initial attack, Cyclops took it upon himself to save both Madelyne and the team. He managed to get Rogue, the newest X-Man, to absorb Xavier's powers and use his telepathy to break through Mastermind's deceptions. When the villain attempted to retaliate, the X-Men's current leader, Storm, subjected him to the equivalent of a hurricane at point-blank range, nearly killing him and breaking his hold on the team once and for all. Now having proved his love to Madelyne twice over, Scott proposed to her in front of his friends, and she accepted. They were married on the Institute grounds, with Colton Ridge acting as father of the bride, since Madelyne had no parents of her own.

Honeymoon's End
Now happily married, Scott and Madelyne enjoyed a brief honeymoon in Mykonos, Greece, before returning to New York. Madelyne returned to piloting full-time, the specter of the plane crash of years ago now all but gone, and Scott attempted to return to being Cyclops, leader of the X-Men, full time. However, the X-Men already had a leader, Storm, who had been elected in his absence, and contnued to lead even despite the loss of her atmokinetic powers. When Madelyne discovered she was pregnant during an adventure with Alpha Flight (during which she had temporarily gained magical healing powers and taken the identity of Anodyne), the conflict between Scott's duties as Cyclops and his duties as a husband and father intensified.

Eventually, Madelyne gave birth to a son, Nathan Christopher Charles Summers. Unfortunately, the childbirth was difficult, as the X-Men were on a mission, and she was alone at the Institute. While she managed to give birth safely, tensions between her and Scott ran high when he returned, as well as tensions between Scott and the X-Men. Finally, Storm challenged Cyclops to a duel for leadership, one that she won handily, even despite her lack of powers at the time. With the choice clearly made for him, Cyclops and Madelyne left the institute and returned to Anchorage, where Madelyne took up her job with Pole Star again, and Scott attempted to be a stay-at-home father.

Despite returning to the place where they had fallen in love, Scott and Madelyne found themselves at loose ends. They still loved each other with everything they had, but Scott's sense of responsibility would never let him completely retire from being Cyclops. There would always be a pull to return to that life.

Additionally, there seemed to be a growing gulf between them. Despite his assurances that he knew Madelyne was not Jean, and that he loved her for herself, Scott seemed to continually be pining for his first love on some level, sometimes thinking about Jean so strongly Madelyne almost thought she could hear it.

What happened next would come as no surprise to either of them, but it would change both their lives forever regardless.

Phoenix Rising
Barely eighteen months after leaving the X-Men, Scott received a phone call from an unknown number. When he picked up, Madelyne knew her marriage was over, because the voice on the other end of the phone was a perfect match for her own. Jean Grey had somehow, miracuously, returned from the dead after three years.

Scott Summers rushed out the door and to the airport without so much as a backward glance at his wife, his infant son, or the life he had made with them. There had been no discussion, no ultimatums, not even an explanation. Scott was there when the phone rang, and within three minutes, he'd packed everything he owned and dashed back to New York. It was like he'd never lived in Anchorage at all, except for the gaping hole in Madelyne's heart, and the child he'd left behind for her to raise alone.

Sinister and the Fall to Power
Despite the sudden, wrenching loss of her husband, Madelyne had to persevere. Colton Ridge was still letting her and Nathan live in his resort free of charge, but they still needed to eat, so she still had to fly. Whenever he was available, Colton's son Toby offered to babysit while Madelyne was away, and she tried to keep her charters short, so that her son didn't feel abandoned by both his parents.

Eventually, though, a job came that Madelyne couldn't refuse. An unknown client was paying an exorbitant amount of money to Pole Star to secure a cargo flight from Anchorage to San Francisco. Their only stipulation was that Madelyne Pryor had to be the pilot. They were even willing to pay her a personal gratuity upon arrival, one that would set her and her son up for life.

Ordinarily, Madelyne would have been suspicious. Pole Star was a local Alaskan flight company, and rarely made flights any farther than western Canada. Furthermore, she had stayed well clear of the City by the Bay ever since that disastrous plane crash so long ago. But in her bereaved, isolated state, Madelyne was desperate to prove that she didn't need Scott to make her way in the world. As this flight was far longer than her usual sojourns, Madelyne elected to bring Nathan along rather than leave him with Toby. She never suspected that her son was the true cargo the client was after.

Upon landing at SFO International Airport, Madelyne was attacked by the Marauders, a squad of mutant assassins. In the confusion, she was separated from Nathan, who seemed to disappear into thin air. When she realized he was gone, Madelyne became enraged. While it's unknown what exactly happened, news stations reported a massive explosion, almost identical to the one that had claimed Flight 137 years before, with the same firebird image at the center.

Madelyne herself had no idea what had happened, only that she blacked out. She came to at San Francisco General Hospital, having been written off as a comatose Jane Doe.

To Be Concluded

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