DECIMATION (part 5, 2006)

Sally Floyd, journalist for the Alternative newspaper, used to write a series of articles called 'The Mutant Diaries' but stopped due to personal problems that made her hit the bottle. After M-Day, she begins running a series of pieces on the mutants who died, but soon she begins to realise the real stories lie with the ones who survived...

Get the full story:
[part 1 - The Day After, Sentinel Squad O*N*E, Mutopia X]
[part 2 - X-Men, New Excalibur, Uncanny, Unlimited]
[part 3 - The 198 Files]
[part 4 - X-Factor, Son of M, The 198]
[part 5 - Generation M]
[part 6 - New X-Men, Son of M, Wolverine]
[part 7 - Deadly Genesis]
[part 8 - New Avengers]

Recommended Reading:
[The Marvel Universe Reading Order]

Sally Floyd starts writing stories about the mutants who lost their powers on M-Day and lost their lives because of it, also showing her rogue reporter side by calling anti-mutant senator Eugene Sykes a jackass.

When Sally finds out that Chamber (the former member of the X-Men and Generation X) is being held in a small local hospital, she goes to see him and finds him in a specially-designed life-support machine with a gaping hole in his chest and no jaw. Restarting her column as 'The Ex-Mutant Diaries', Sally's column gains huge popularity and notoriety.

With her popularity at a new high, Sally gets another chance to confront Sykes about his racist views on live TV. But her moment in the sun is overshadowed when she returns home to find an envelope taped to her front door with the words "not enough died"...

Sally and her editor, Neil Crawford, get the law involved when she opens the envelope and finds it full of photos of murdered ex-mutants. Struggling to deal with the loss of her daughter already, Sally begins wondering if the murders were connected with the Ex-Mutant Diaries in some way.

Taking advice from the police, Sally goes on to interview former-X-Man Stacy X and asks her old pal Jubilee to help her get an interview with the X-Men themselves.

A few days later, Sally meets Detective Izzo who reveals the killer is a mutant...

The murderer starts calling Sally's home in the middle of the night, looking for an interview. Instead, Crawford sends her to visit the ex-mutant support group FOOM (Former Order of Mutants).

On her way home, she's approached by another former mutant, the Blob, who advises her to check out the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane. She returns home for a confrontation with er ex-husband, Ken Floyd, then it's out to the institute to watch the nutjobs and their power-plays.

Not having experienced any huge revelations, Sally begins the drive home, but the body of a former-mutant is hurled onto her windscreen before she gets too far...

Detective Izzo insists on Sally having police protection from the killer, now dubbed the Ghoul. She reluctantly agrees.

Sarah Purser used to have the power of flight. When she hurls herself off a building in front of Sally, its pretty clear she doesn't have her powers anymore. She briefly meets Barnell Bohusk (who used to be better known as Beak) who seems happier without his powers.

The Ghoul's body count increases as he starts killing former Morlocks. Sally manages to get an interview with Marrow who still sports her protruding bones, despite losing her powers. She does her best to protect the Morlocks from predators knowing most of them will leave over time now many of them have lost the powers that made them freaks.

Warren Worthington, the X-Men's Archangel, visits Sally and asks her to write a piece on him, exposing the boney stumps on his back that used to be wings...

Sally interview Archangel and Dani Moonstar, but comes to a decision to run the story of her daughter, Minnie Floyd. Minnie was born with a genetic quirk, or mutant ability, which kicked in when she was two or three years old and made her age in reverse. By the time she was four, she had reverted to a six-month old. Sally forced Ken out of their lives and watched Minnie slowly die while she hit the bottle.

The revelation of Sally's mutant daughter angered the Ghoul, attacking her during her second interview with Warren Worthington. He reveals he still has his Archangel powers and the stumps were created using an image inducer (how didn't she notice when she hugged him?) in a ruse designed to draw the Ghoul out (bit of a dumb plan. Why didn't they send Wolverine to track him??).

Despite Archangel's lame plan, the Ghoul kidnaps Sally. The X-Men rescue her and kill the Ghoul during the conflict. Sally Floyd returns to work at the Alternative to rapturous applause for her bravery in facing the Ghoul and, most of all, in confronting her past. Then it's off to Alcoholics Anonymous to fix up that drinking problem...!

Follow the story in:
Generation M #1-5

Fallout:

• New X-Men #23 (2006) Dani Moonstar, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Iceman and Rogue next appear during Decimation.
• New X-Men #24 (2006) Archangel and Wolverine next appear.
• Doc Samson #1 (2006) Tony Stark next appears.
• Wolverine: Origins #6 (2006) Jubilee next appears.
• X-Men Apocalypse vs Dracula #1-4 (2006) Chamber is revealed to be a descendant of Apocalypse.
• Civil War: Front Line #1 (2006) Sally Floyd next appears during Civil War.
• Thunderbolts #103 (2006) Blob next appears during Civil War.
• Civil War: Front Line #5 (2006) Neil Crawford next appears during Civil War.
• New Excalibur #9 (2006) Chamber next appears; Pete Wisdom arranges for Chamber to be moved to England; Clan Akkaba heal Chamber with the blood of Apocalypse, giving him grey skin and blue lips.
• Civil War: Front Line #7 (2006) Eugene Sykes next appears during Civil War.
• Civil War: Front Line #8 (2007) Doug & Jerry next appear during Civil War.
• Civil War: Front Line #11 (2007) Sally Floyd leaves the Alternative and starts up Front Line with Ben Urich during Civil War.
• X-Men #200 (2007) Prism next appears during Blinded By The Light.
• X-Factor #18 (2007) Marrow next appears; Blob becomes convinced M-Day was caused by the US Government.
• New Warriors #1 (2007) Barnell Bohusk next appears; Jubilee joins the New Warriors as Wondra during The Initiative.
• New Warriors #2 (2007) Stacy X next appears; Beak, Chamber and Stacy X joins the New Warriors as Blackwing, Decibel and Ripcord during The Initiative.
• Avengers: The Initiative #3 (2007) Moonstar becomes an advisor for The Initiative during The Initiative.
• World War Hulk: Front Line #1 (2007) It's revealed that the Alternative newspaper has been closed down; Sally Floyd starts drinking again during World War Hulk.
• Uncanny X-Men #500 (2008) Blob loses his excess skin and becomes a TV personality during Manifest Destiny.
• New Mutants #11 (2010) Dani Moonstar regains her Valkyrie powers during Siege.
• X-Men #1 (2010) Jubilee gains vampiric powers during Curse of the Mutants.
• New Mutants #24 (2011) Chamber regains his old appearance and abilities during Age of X.
• Vengeance #1 (2011) Stacy X is revealed to have regained her powers.
• X-Force #1 (2014) Marrow's powers are revealed to have been fully restored during All-New Marvel NOW!
• X-Men Legacy #24 (2014) Legion restores Chamber to life after a battle with one of Legion's sub-personas, minus his Akkaba upgrades.
• Uncanny X-Men #16 (2014) The Blob is revealed to have regained his powers.

Characters yet to reappear:

• Nelson Cragg (deceased)
• Collider
• Dynamite (deceased)
• Ken Floyd
• Minnie Floyd (deceased)
• FOOM (Former Order of Mutants)
• Tim Hacker (deceased)
• Dezmond Harris
• Ghoul
• Inferno (deceased)
• Irving
• Detective Izzo
• LaTonya Jefferson (deceased)
• John Mairs (deceased)
• Jeannie Martin (deceased)
• Gary Peterson (deceased)
• Joe Prindle
• Sarah Purser (deceased)
• Ned Ralston (deceased)
• Mrs. Ralston
• Roach (deceased)
• Violet Sanchez (deceased)