Unstoppable Sorcerer

In New York, a worker finds a strange necklace.

Rachel Summers and Amara Aquilla as Magma are having a day out in New York; the bright city that never sleeps reminds Rachel of her painful past in a future timeline. Whilst visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, Rachel senses again the presence of Selene, the woman who tried to kill her earlier. Since Amara also has a score to settle with the immortal huntress, the two girls hunt her down to the Hellfire Club's headquarters, where Selene applies for membership. As she senses the two mutant girls’ presence, she easily defeats them and turns them over to Shaw as a present, but Xavier and the X-Men rescue them in time.

Meanwhile, Jamie Rodriguez killed the thief who wants the necklace that he found. Kulan Gath, the sorcerer imprisoned with in the artifact is finally released.

Sorcerer Kulan Gath has magically transformed Manhattan Island to the barbarian age, building a kingdom of terror, hate and magic. His henchmen are the Morlocks, his enemies the X-Men and the Avengers, or rather barbarian-counterparts of those heroes. By accident, Storm and Callisto fall into the ocean, and the current takes them out of the spells range. They unite to battle Kulan Gath, and have unexpected help in the form of Selene, who although still in Manhattan, is unaffected, as she already lived back then in the era where Gath is from.

The evil sorcerer puts Xavier, Dr. Strange and the New Mutants under his control, while Selene turns Magma and Rachel Summers into her loyal followers, since both girls don’t remember past encounters. Storm and Callisto re-enter the city, their minds protected by Selene‘s sorcery, yet it’s too late, she has already been captured by Gath. Storm and Callisto unite with the ancient versions of the X-Men, the Avengers and Illyana Rasputin against the immortal tyrant.

In the never ending battles, in the transformed Manhattan more and more of New York‘s super-beings are either killed or forced to join Kulan Gath‘s forces. The heroes gain a slight advantage by finding librarian Arilynn, who can tell them the origin of their opponent. In the final battle, most heroes are defeated, but the last wave makes it into the sorcerer’s palace – only to be stopped by the Avenger's Scarlet Witch, transforming them to stone. All over sudden, New Mutants' Warlock and Storm fly into the throne room and manage to steal Gath‘s necklace, the source of his power. But as quickly as they gained it, they lose it to Magma – actually Selene. The clever sorceress had switched appearances with Amara all along, and it was the New Mutant who had been captured by Gath, while she posing as Magma, followed the heroes. Ororo knows that Selene is no batter than Gath and uses Warlock’s trans-mode virus to kill her. Dr. Strange and Illyana then synchronize powers and cause a leap back in time, before all the horror happened.

In the subway, Jaime Rodriguez is again about to be attacked for the necklace, but this time he is saved by the arrival of the mutant hunting Nimrod. The necklace falls in the mud and is forgotten.

In Manhattan, Nimrod kills two armed gangsters and the crowd cheers at him.

Secret Wars II- Death of the New Mutants

Rachel has gone to put an end to the Beyonder's exploration of the Marvel Universe with help from the Phoenix Force. The X-Men start looking for her with Cerebro.

On Alcatraz, Rachel Summers assaults the Beyonder with all her might, in vain: the Beyonder remains unharmed. The Beyonder senses the inner troubles of Rachel; all she has known in her future timeline was death. Then he grants her enough of his power to actually kill him, but arranges for her to choose. She can either kill him, or save the X-Men, whom the Beyonder pitted in battle against a group of Sentinels from Rachel’s future. Rachel rushes to San Francisco where the X-Men are being assaulted by Sentinels and later returns to the Beyonder.

The alien explains that he wanted to give her the chance to make up with her past and save the X-Men. He hopes that she has now inner piece and he will find it too. Angrily Rachel explains that he only used her like a puppet and that she has accomplished nothing on her own. Knowledge and maturity must be earned and deserved.

On the Golden Gate Bridge, Rogue reminisces the night when she psychically murdered Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Ms Marvel.

Returning to the X-Men’s temporary headquarter in San Francisco, Rachel is amazed when Kitty Pryde shows her the Soulsword which she "inherited" from Illyana Rasputin after the Beyonder killed her and the New Mutants. Rachel decides to destroy the Beyonder by traveling to the M’Kraan Crystal and releasing the neutron galaxy inside. All current life would end, so that whoever inhabits the next universe might be free of the Beyonder. Yet she needs the others’ life forces to support her. Some X-Men give willingly, some are taken in their sleep, Storm even refuses but is taken anyway.

Soaring through space, Rachel "recruits" Professor X and the Starjammers and readies herself to destroy the M’Kraan Crystal so that the universe will be destroyed. She touches every single being in the universe and begins to have doubts. Storm convinces her not to back away from her plan. Once back to earth, the X-Men confront the Beyonder; Kitty Pryde accuses him of the New Mutants‘ deaths, Rachel hurts him by returning him his power and Storm explains to him what life means for even the smallest creatures on earth. He leaves, having learned an important lesson about life. The sun rises on another day, with the Beyonder still alive and the New Mutants has been resurrected.

In Japan, children are witness to the return of the X-Men from the Secret Wars.

The X-Men came back from the Beyonder's planet with a giant-sized dragon. The dragon begins wreaking havoc in Tokyo with the X-Men saving lives and trying to prevent further damage. They are joined Sunfire, who is also a former X-Man.

Meanwhile, apart from his colleagues, Cyclops returns to Earth to be welcomed by an angry and worried Madelyne Pryor. In Tokyo, Wolverine saves a little girl, Amiko, and promise to her dying mother to raise her as his own. Eventually, the dragoness launches a final assault on the X-Men only to be stopped by Lockheed who had befriended her during the Secret Wars.

By the end of the issue, Senator Kelly wants to introduce his project of the Mutant Registration Act to the Congress.

Nightcrawler is brooding after the Beyonder transported the X-Men to San Francisco, leaving him behind. Ever since facing the omnipotent being, Kurt doubts his believes, the existence of God and reality itself, for all he knows even his love for Amanda Sefton could be induced by her magical spells. Naturally Amanda gets very upset and leaves to the airport, as she has a flight to attend.

After being killed and later again resurrected by the Beyonder, the New Mutants were left shocked and apathetic, most of the team totally lost their will to live. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for Emma Frost. She offered telepathic treatment in case they joined the Hellions. Giving in to feelings of guilt, fear and helplessness, Magneto accepted; unaware that he was emotionally manipulated by Frost’s student Empath.

The White Queen welcomed her new students at the Massachusetts Academy and immediately started to erase their memories of the painful events. On a surface level, it seemed that the teenagers were themselves again but Emma sensed that there was still something amiss. Meanwhile, Magneto found out that he had been tricked by Empath and tried to get the kids back. Emma Frost called the local authorities, who in turn summoned the Avengers to detain Magneto. Luckily, the New Mutants learned about the fight and, after Illyana teleported them to the battle site, they helped him. The White Queen decided to try another approach and offered to help the kids together with Magneto. This time, they were successful. Her telepathic powers and Magneto’s emotional concern restored them to their old selves. With the Mutants deciding to return to Xavier’s school, Emma departed peacefully. However, she left her invitation open, well aware that she now seemed generous in the New Mutants’ eyes and they possibly would not believe Magneto when he would try to tell them about her being evil.

The Rocker and The Actor Collides

In Los Angeles, Malice takes full control of Dazzler and makes her loose the disguise. She then goes clubbing, publicly revealing herself as the mutant Dazzler.

Nobody knows this time, that it was Mister Sinister who is the brain behind in this mutant massacre.

The Maurauder's- Malice influenced Alison Blaire the Dazzler. During a concert she exposes her cover of being a mere keyboarder and steals the limelight from Lila Cheney. Later on she dances in a nightclub and makes no secret of her light powers. Lila is concerned and calls the X-Men. Wolverine, Storm, Rogue and Psylocke investigate, and Malice does some body jumping, making the X-Men fights each other.

Lila Cheney- a British mutant who can generate massive amounts of energy to convert matter into tachyon particles, propelling them inter-planetary distances and reforming them in an instant

Finally Betsy understands what’s going on and they make Malice enter Storm, who has the will power to resist the Marauder’s influence. The psychic entity then leaves, though feeling victorious as she made the X-Men say things to each other that will not be easy to forget. Dazzler is told to join the X-Men, as she is a too obvious target for the Marauders.

Various officials in Washington are discussing the “mutant menace”. In the Morlock tunnels, Caliban is sad because Kitty did not fulfill her promise to stay with him. Callisto plans to force her to come back.

At Xavier’s, the X-Men load up the wounded onto the Blackbird. They’re going to take them to Moira MacTaggert’s in Scotland.

Only Storm and Wolverine are staying behind. During the flight Shadowcat, still stuck in phased state, walks up to the sleeping Longshot and gives him a kiss. He wakes up and feels death within Kitty.

Meanwhile, Storm and Wolverine take a trip to Sara Grey’s house. They arrive and find the place on fire. Wolverine picks up a familiar scent and goes berserk. He knocks Storm out and runs away. Storm wakes up in a prison cell. She escapes and finds out she’s in a building filled with animal heads and war memorabilia. The owners of the building come back; they are three super-powered war veterans by the names of Crimson Commando, Silver Sabre and Stonewall. After a big fight, Storm is subdued. Later, she finds out she and another girl are going to be hunted by these three men. They get a head start and take advantage of it. At sunset the men go hunting.

Wolverine’s out and about running through the woods. He’s on the trail of Jean Grey and he’s starting to lose control. He runs out into a road and is struck down by a truck. The impact causes the truck to break down, however Wolverine keeps on running.

In the meantime, nobody knows from the X-Men team that Jean is still alive somewhere after committing suicide being the Dark Phoenix. Indeed, she has been resurrected from the ashes but she let not anyone aware that is still alive except the X-Factor team.

Elsewhere, Storm and a drug dealer by the name of Priscilla Morrison are on the run from three super-powered war veterans. Storm lays a trap for Silver Sabre that would decapitate him. She has second thoughts though and drops the trap. Priscilla is not too happy with Storm and how she’s playing this game. After Sabre runs by, they head off into the woods. A little bit later, Crimson Commando and Stonewall come across Storm’s trap. The fact that she didn’t spring it causes Stonewall to resent going after Storm. Silver Sabre comes zipping by again and they show him the trap. Sabre takes off intent on beating them to where they’re going. He arrives at the most likely spot and waits. Unfortunately for him, Storm and Priscilla are already there. Storm attacks him and they fall off a small cliff. Priscilla takes advantage of the situation and causes an avalanche on both of them. She runs off and comes across the broken down truck and the couple it belongs to. Priscilla steals their gun and shoots them. She gets in the truck and takes off, but soon ends up in a swamp. Later on in the evening Stonewall finds Priscilla sleeping by the swamp and goes towards her. However, Storm is there hiding and she gets the upper hand on him. After rescuing him from the swamp and escaping a brain bashing from Priscilla, Commando comes upon her.

Wolverine is also there and everyone watches as Storm fights the Commando. After a few minutes Storm wins and tells him to give up to the authorities or else she will kill them both. Commando eventually agrees and later they turn themselves in. Storm and Wolverine are there to make sure they do. During a conversation with Wolverine, Storm decides to take a new approach to thwarting evil mutants.

In the meantime the other X-Men are at Moira’s lab complex on Muir Island. No signs of trouble except a few more Morlocks have died of their injuries.

Muir Island, where the X-Men are running a training exercise. It's a night-op and it's Psylocke versus the rest of the team. Rogue and Dazzler hit her hard, but Psylocke manages to best them. It's not until Longshot's crazy luck enters the equation that Psylocke is beaten. Afterwards they meet for breakfast with Banshee, who goes over their training with them. His main gripe is lack of teamwork.

Later on, the X-Men are in the gym working out. Callisto and Dazzler end up going head to head, resulting in Dazzler storming off and heading to the mainland. Once there she goes to a pub and has the time of her life. She even wonders if she should stay an X-Man.

After the party's over, she leaves and is almost run down by Cain Marko. Intent on proving herself, she goes after him. It turns out that Juggernaut's a big fan of her work and doesn't want to fight her. It's too bad that Dazzler doesn't feel that way. After none of her tricks work, she waits for Juggernaut to get close. When he's near, she throws everything she has at him. It doesn't work and the stress kills her, or so Juggernaut thinks.

Dazzler, it turns out, wasn't dead, but just unconscious. After summoning enough strength to create a light blast, she's rescued by her fellow X-Men. The team has a heart-to-heart and Dazzler decides to stay with them. They hear a radio report that the Juggernaut is terrorizing Edinburgh and head over to check it out. Rogue's the first to reach Juggernaut and take him on. She's soon beaten and one by one the X-Men attack him and are nearly killed. After the group rescues Longshot beneath a pile of rubble, they decide they need to fight him as a team. Thanks to their newly developed teamwork, they're able to remove Juggernaut’s helmet and crash-land him into some train tracks. Unfortunately a train is coming. Rogue and Longshot take to the train while Dazzler and Psylocke stick to Juggernaut. Both sides are successful and two tragedies are averted. However, upon getting back to the city they find it was just a clever ruse.

Black Tom Cassidy was robbing the Scotland National Bank during Juggernaut's rampage. Psylocke puts a positive spin on things, though, and they see the brighter picture.

In Northern Mexico, Polaris and Havok are driving home, enjoying themselves when a VW bus changes their future. They're knocked off a road and fall down a mountainside. After getting themselves back together, they search for the maniac. However, what they end up finding could spell disaster for the entire world; a Starshark - one of the living spaceships of the Brood.

Alex is having nightmares about the X-Men and is determined to find out why. He makes his way to Xavier's mansion from New Mexico, but finds the mansion empty. He does stumble upon Magneto's diary, which leads him to the Hellfire Club. He arrives there and is soon met by Magneto who, as it turns out, is the new White King of the Club. Havok smells foul play and leaves without any answers. Later, he watches the Hellfire Club, waiting for Magneto to leave. When he does leave, Havok follows him and ends up in the Morlock Tunnels. After following a far-off light, he finds himself in a secret meeting of the X-Men. He's soon discovered by Rogue and a fight ensues. Eventually Havok calms down and after hearing Storm’s words decide to join the X-Men.

Meanwhile, Polaris is back in New Mexico and being hunted by the Marauders. Luckily, she survives her house being blown up and takes them on. She eventually knocks Sabretooth out, traps Arclight in the ground and beats Scalphunter senseless. After she claims her victory they discover it was really Malice possessing Polaris that defeated them. Malice proudly announces she will be the new leader of the Marauders!

The Cheyenne Mutant

A Prologue: The Cheyenne Indians have long known of the existence of the Adversary, and their shaman, the mutant known as Forge, was trained from birth to combat him. Forge's teacher was the older Cheyenne shaman Nazé, who himself clashed with the Adversary. However, Forge rejected the tile of a shaman and instead enlisted in the United States armed forces and wants to fight in the Vietnam War. During the war Forge's own command was wiped out by enemy soldiers. Anguished and enraged by the deaths of his men, Forge used the spirits of nine of his newly killed men to cast a spell that opened a mystical portal into another dimension, through which came demons that slew the enemy soldiers.

As a member of the Freedom Force, Forge used his powers of invention to create himself advanced state-of-the-art prosthesis for his missing limbs and, apparently, put his energies into becoming a superb inventor, also making contacts with Nick Fury of the SHIELD and several other government officials, while at the same time leading the life of a recluse. He also vowed never to use magic again after the events in Vietnam, much to the displeasure of shaman Nazé, who urged him to return to his duties as a Shaman.

Forge (real name unrevealed) is a mutant with a superhuman talent for inventing mechanical devices. Forge's mutant ability functions in a similar fashion to Cypher's mutant ability to understand languages. Forge's superhuman talent for invention does not mean that he is a greater inventor than geniuses such as Reed Richards, Victor von Doom, or Anthony Stark, none of whom owe their talent for invention to mutation. But even a genius at invention must for the most part consciously work out the theoretical principles behind the invention and then the design of the invention itself through a series of logical steps.

Years later, Forge had become an inventor working for the United States government. Alien Dire Wraiths invaded his headquarters at Eagle Plaza in Dallas, Texas since he was working on weaponry to be used against them. Nazé and various members and allies of the X-Men, including Storm, joined with Forge in battling the Wraiths. In the course of this Wraith attack Nazé was killed and his form was duplicated by one of the Wraiths. That Wraith, in turn, fell under the mystical possession of the Adversary.

When Tony Stark the Avengers' Iron-Man stopped creating weaponry for the US government, Forge became their top weapons manufacturer. At that time, the government had become aware of the clandestine threat of the Dire Wraiths – evil shape shifting aliens, who were trying to subjugate Earth – only the Galadorian Spaceknight- Roma, with his Neutralizer and Analyzer, stood in their way. Roma’s weapons couldn’t be copied, therefore Forge was to create new version of his weapons from scratch. He succeeded by creating a Neutralizer that was capable of nullifying every superpower. At that time, signs already pointed towards the Adversary gaining a foothold in this dimension, but Forge refused to get involved, despite Nazé’s heated arguments, claiming that he held nothing dear and didn’t care what happened.

In the Pentagon, Henry Peter Gyrich prepares an attack on Rogue, believing her to still be a villain as Raven Darkholme tries to protect her adopted daughter. She alerts Forge of the unauthorized use of his invention.

Meanwhile Rogue has run away from the X-Men, but Storm tracks her down. She entrusts Rogue with her powers and mind by allowing a physical contact, and Rogue is amazed by the world’s beauty seen through Ororo’s eyes. Forge follows Cooper, Gyrich and SHIELD team. Suddenly the military arrives and Gyrich tries to remove Rogue's powers with Forges' neutralizer, but he accidentally hits Storm, permanently leeching Storm's powers away. Forge rescues the unconscious Storm from drowning in the Mississippi and angrily condemns Gyrich’s actions.

From afar the Dire Wraiths decide that Forge has to be killed, wanting to prevent the mass production of his neutralizer.  From that moment, Forge joined the X-Men.

Valerie Cooper and her colleagues (the Freedom Force) try to find Rogue being accused of murder, but it’s Rogue who finds them and saves Val from an attack by the Dire Wraiths. During the battle she absorbs one of the aliens, and Xavier, who has been scanning for both missing X-Men, is hit by the psychic backlash. Rogue absorbs Val‘s memories to find out what happened to Storm.

Meanwhile, deprived of her powers, a depressed Storm is being housed by Forge who tries to feed her and prevent her from letting herself die. Feeling guilty over what had happened to Storm, Forge prevented her arrest and took her with him to his home, where he nursed the suicidal depressed woman back to health. It helped that he could sympathize with her loss, as he knew what it was like to be maimed. Eventually, both mutants began to fall for each other but, when Ororo accidentally learned that Forge had created the Neutralizer (something he had kept from her), she left him angrily, despite his offer to find a way to restore her powers.

After Storm is incapable to lead, Nightcrawler took over the lead. He also test Rouge in the Danger Room regarding the seven senses of Carol Danvers.

The X-Men return home, Nightcrawler thinks that they should disband: Months of fighting, Banshee and Storm powerless, the government discussing laws against mutants and even dead members to mourn like Thunderbird and Jean Grey. Hearing this Rachel freaks out, how could her mother be dead, as she has not been born yet? She then reveals some of her past in her future timeline, where mutants were killed simply because of their existence, and encourages the X-Men to go on, the world needs mutant superheroes to understand that not all mutants are evil.

In San Francisco, the X-Men are taking a few days off after finishing repairing the town; Storm is handing a squad of muggers to the police while Kitty Pryde prepares herself for a night out. Rachel ponders visiting Cyclops and Madelyne in Anchorage when the weary X-Men are attacked by Freedom Force lead by Mystique. When it starts to rain, Storm pretends that it is her doing, as the villains do not know that she no longer has her powers and Rachel backs her up, by lifting her telekinetically as if she was flying herself. Spiral sees through the ploy and takes out Rachel. Rogue tries to absorb Spiral, but the sorceress has the stronger will and takes control of Rogue’s body. Spiral/Rogue knocks out Colossus with her strength and magically screws up Kitty’s power – the X-Men are defeated.

Yet before they are arrested, the local authorities of San Francisco arrive and say that in their city the X-Men are considered heroes, while Freedom Force contain some well-known criminals. As they cannot even show an official warrant, Freedom Force leaves without their captives. Naturally, after damaging an entire part of San Francisco again, the X-Men realize that they have overstayed their welcome and prepare to leave the city. The unconscious Madelyne Pryor gets wheeled into a hospital; since she carries no I.D. she gets listed as “Jane Doe”.

Revenge of Yuriko

Arcade again has kidnapped a young woman named Judith Rassendvll in Central Park. Nightcrawler recognizes Arcade’s garbage truck and decides to help her. Together they manage to avoid Arcade's deadly traps, and fighting for a damsel in distress, Kurt finds his purpose in life once more. Once that matter of life and death dealt with, Nightcrawler and his protégé have a big surprise awaiting them, as Judith is none other than the heiress to the throne of Ruritania.

In Psylocke's premonition, she saw the Australian Outback and the introduction of the Reavers, a band of cyborg mercenaries. She then warned the team. The current team of Reavers is dedicated to the destruction of the mutant X-Men and a number of them especially want to take revenge on one particular X-Man, Wolverine.

Yuriko Oyama was the daughter of Kanji Oyama, alias Lord Dark Wind, and a former Japanese kamikaze pilot during World War II who had survived his suicidal assault on an American battleship. Kanji Oyama felt shamed by his survival. His face was scarred by the crash of his plane, and he likewise scarred the faces of his two sons and his daughter. Lord Dark Wind developed a means for bonding the virtually, indestructible steel alloy adamantium to human bone, with which he hoped to create an army of superhuman soldiers for Japan. However, his notes were stolen, and it took him years to rediscover the process. Later Yuriko led the Reavers and change her name as the Lady Deathstryke. She then led Cole, Macon, and Reese in an unsuccessful attempt to slay Wolverine in Manhattan.

Lady Deathstryke (Yuriko Oyama) a Japanese, altered by Spiral's Bodyshoppe with cybernetics to gain augmented strength, speed, agility, stamina, and reflexes, extendible razor edged talons, conducts electromagnetic charges through her bio-mechanical parts

Lady Deathstryke pays Spiral for turning her three former Hellfire Club guards into cyborgs at her Bodyshoppe. They want to kill Wolverine and then have the process reversed. During a snowstorm they attack Logan by surprise, which barely escapes and is injured so much that he forgets who is. Barely more than a wounded animal, he runs into Power Pack’s energizer. The little girl recognizes him and though she is somewhat scared, helps him survive in the snowstorm and keep him ahead of his attackers long enough for his healing factor to kick in. Wolverine then remembers himself and hides the girl in a safe location, while he takes out the cyborgs one by one, until it is only him against Deathstryke.

In the battle Logan gets into a berserker rage and takes the cyborg apart. Shocked by seeing the implants and cables he snaps back to his senses. Deathstryke says the transformation was necessary to become like him, yet Logan states the difference is that he had the adamantium bonded to him against his will, yet she asked to be changed and threw away her humanity for it. Deathstryke begs Logan to show mercy and kill her, but he says that mercy needs to be earned before he leaves to take little Katie home.

Because of injuries he received in battle with Lady Deathstryke, the X-Men have brought Wolverine to the Morlock Healer. As he still needs to rest they are allowed to stay in the tunnels. The others are still angry with Rachel as she, without permission, absorbed their life-forces to fight the Beyonder. Mind linked with Wolverine because of her trying to push his healing factor, Rachel experiences recurring nightmares of Logan hunting and killing her.

Overwhelmed, Rachel leaves the Morlock tunnels and wanders the streets of New York, thinking that she better had died among the X-men of her future timeline. Remembering the nice man who tried to help her after arrival in the present, only to get killed by Selene, Rachel goes in search for the ancient witch with one single goal in mind - kill her. Wolverine follows her and arrives in the Hellfire Club as Rachel already has defeated her opponent and holds her in telekinetic grip. Logan tries to reason with Rachel, but it’s useless she doesn’t listen. To stop Rachel from becoming a murderer, Logan rams his claws into her gut.

The X-Men, especially Kitty Pryde, are shocked to hear that Logan used his claws on Rachel when she was about to kill Selene. He explains that he could not let her become a murderer and the X-Men follow his reasoning though are not happy with his decision. However they need to find Rachel before they can do anything else in the matter. Meanwhile the badly injured Rachel has made her way to Central Park. She barely survived being stabbed in the heart because her telekinesis closed the wounds and kept her heart beating. Rachel thinks that she might have been wrong, however when she discovers the remains of Selene’s latest victims, drained dry of every iota of life force, Rachel gets mad. This could have been prevented if Logan had not stopped her. Angrily she lashes out at Logan from across the town, making him live through the same pain, as the two deceased must have. At the Hellfire Club, Selene has called a meeting of the Inner Circle. After informing them of Rachel’s attack, it is decided that she needs to be hunted down and if possible been turned into a Hellfire Club operative. Both search parties reach Rachel at the same time and naturally a battle erupts.

Soon the Hellfire Club gains the upper hand, but suddenly Nimrod, who registered the multiple mutant signatures, interrupts the fight. He states that all mutants are criminals and that their punishment is death.

In the confusion, Rachel slips away, thinking that the X-Men are better off without her.

The mutant-hunting robot Nimrod has just interrupted a confrontation between the X-Men and the Hellfire Club in Central Park. While the Lords Cardinal is still amazed by the sight of the advanced robot, Storm shows herself to be a good tactician. She has Rogue surprise attack the Hellfire Club from below the ground, making Harry Leland lose concentration. Although no longer influenced by the gravimetric pull of Leland's powers, Colossus is still trapped beneath the ground. However, Kitty can now phase after him and before he suffocates.

Meanwhile, the members of the Inner Circle attack Nimrod, who hits Shaw with a beam that reverses his gravimetric polarity, making him float into the stratosphere. Storm tries to convince the Hellfire Club that they need to pool their resources, but they only agree after their Black Rook, Nimrod disintegrates Friedrich Von Roehm. Finally accepting a temporary truce, Harry Leland acts as Storm requests and uses his gravimetric pull on Nimrod, pulling him to the ground. Nightcrawler tries to teleport a piece of Nimrod away, but the robot disrupts his power and Kurt dematerializes with a scream of agony. Despite him having a heart attack from the strain, Storm once more asks for the Black Bishop to use his power, this time one Sebastian Shaw.

Leland passes away; right as Shaw comes crashing into Nimrod like a small meteor. Wolverine wants to slice the robot's remains apart, but it teleports away in the last instant. Tending to their wounded and cutting their losses, the X-Men accept Tessa's offer to accompany them to the Hellfire Club mansion, as the police are already arriving on the scene.

Across the park, Rachel Summers, the actual reason for the initial confrontation, is lured away into the Bodyshoppe, a place of beautiful light and music. Spiral, the saleswoman, offers Rachel to remake her in a new, beautiful way. After she accepts, the two vanish into a portal, leading towards the unknown.

In New York, Nightcrawler gives his goodbyes to Judith Rassendvll, the girl he saved from Arcade. The battle showed him how much he enjoys fighting for the right cause.

Storm approaches Wolverine about taking over as leader of the X-Men while she searches for Forge to ask him to return her powers. He doesn't want to do it, but Storm manages to convince him that it's his duty. She makes her way to Dallas, Texas, where Forge's penthouse is. After finding the building deserted and without power, she takes the stairs up to Forge's penthouse apartment. When she arrives, she is shocked to find holograms of her and Forge out on the balcony, replaying their confrontation from months ago. Suddenly, the security systems are activated, but through some fancy maneuvering she stays out of harm's way. She progresses through the penthouse only to find more and more holograms of herself and Forge. She decides to go to the control room to shut it off. When she does, the holograms disappear and she finds Forge distraught nearby. However, it's just another hologram and the person who turned them on reveals himself. It's Nazé, who tells her he wanted to test her skills. He wants her help in finding

Forge. She refuses, but after much begging and pleading she agrees to go with him. However, Nazé's motives may not be so innocent.

Mister Sinister holds a meeting with his Marauders after their botched assassination attempt of Madelyne Pryor. After several threats and an asphyxiated Sabretooth, he sends them out to try again.

Over at the mansion, Dazzler hones her skills in the Danger Room. Her opponent is a holographic Rogue. When the real Rogue finds out she's not too happy. They almost duke it out, but are called to an emergency meeting.

Meanwhile, the X-Men have taken off to San Francisco. They're there to help Madelyne who was recently attacked by the Marauders. And speak of the devil, the Marauders pop up and mayhem ensues. The ordeal at the hospital ends when Rogue flies Madelyne away. Unfortunately, one Marauder unaccounted for now shows up. It's Polaris and she's taken control of a construction zone to capture both Rogue and Madelyne. She eventually dumps them in the Bay to drown. Luckily, Dazzler's there for a timely rescue. Both Rogue and Dazzler make amends, but all is not well as Polaris intends to finish the job.

At the Grand Canyon, Nazé and Storm continue their journey looking for Forge. "Nazé," however, harbors decidedly unpleasant plans Storm isn't aware of.

Rogue and Dazzler are about to be attacked by Polaris when Havok, from a very far distance, blasts her out of the sky. Rogue flies Dazzler and the unconscious Polaris to the beach. Rogue leaves in search of Madelyne, leaving Dazzler behind to guard the Polaris. Havok, Psylocke and two police officers come on scene. Polaris wakes up and attacks Havok and everyone else. More Marauders show up (Vertigo, Harpoon, and Arclight) and start fighting. Thanks to Psylocke, Lorna briefly regains control of her mind. She loses it again, though, and the Marauders are able to trap all the X-Men in the sand, except for Havok who grabs onto Polaris' legs.

Over at the Golden Gate Bridge, Longshot and Wolverine spoil an assassination attempt by Scalphunter. Scalphunter starts blasting away at them and Longshot falls off the bridge. Wolverine fights Scrambler and Sabretooth as well, before jumping off the bridge. Rogue who takes him back up top saves him, but the Marauders are gone. Wolverine heads back down to the water to look for Longshot and find him rescuing Madelyne.

A bit earlier, Polaris and Havok are above Alcatraz. The signal for the Marauder to leave is given and Polaris leaves Havok behind. He tries to blast her out of the sky, but she deflects his attack; he cries.

Meanwhile, in the Rocky Mountains, Nazé and Storm continue their quest to find Forge. They're just sitting down to dinner when they come under attack from Eye Killers. A storm figure out their weakness is fire and both she and Nazé are able to destroy them.

The Crimson Commando and Stonewall are taken to Freedom Force's headquarters where they are to be made members. After a bit of hazing from the veterans, Spiral senses an intruder. She teleports out of there and snags him. It turns out to be Silver Sabre, who joins the team. Inside, Destiny screams. She senses the end of the X-Men, and the world.

In the Rocky Mountains, Nazé falls over and is terribly ill. Storm takes care of him and makes him some medicine. Nazé has her take it first and suddenly a huge bear busts through the wall and attacks her. Later on, a giant snake attacks her. Eventually, she runs smack dab into Forge, who tries to woo her to the side of chaos. She's left with only one choice. She unsheathes her knife and stabs him in the chest. Suddenly, the world changes around her. She's back in the cabin. It was only a test by Nazé. She passed.

Over in San Francisco, the X-Men hone their battle skills. Dazzler gets a little careless and Wolverine comes down hard on her. However, he says he's pleased with Rogue's progress. The team discusses their desire to bring the Marauders to justice. Nearby, Madelyne is thinking about her past. She's all upset about Scott and her baby. Alex sees her looking over the edge of a cliff and rushes to her aid. They discuss their problems and Alex manages to comfort his desolate sister-in-law.

In her hospital bed, Madelyne Pryor has a nightmare about being the sole survivor of a plane crash. She is brought to an ambulance, but the paramedics seem familiar and Madelyne realizes she is in trouble. She breaks free, but is eventually gunned down by two of the Marauders. Madelyne finally wakes up from her coma, much to the surprise of two doctors, who have been treating the unconscious woman for weeks.

In Wyoming, Storm and Nazé are in company as she heads off to Forge’s aerie. During her climb she’s met with some black lightning, an avalanche and a horde of demons. She eventually makes it to the top, only to be met by hundreds more demons.

She spots Forge not too far off – a hole in the sky above him - and heads towards him. She eventually slaughters the whole crew of otherworldly creatures and gets to Forge. He’s surprised to see her, and is even more surprised when she shoves her knife into his chest. He confesses to her that he was trying to stop the Adversary not help him. She suddenly realizes that she’s been played for a fool. With death at hand they jump off the cliff side, only to be sucked up into the Adversary’s sky gate.

In attempting to escape the demons, Forge and Storm both fell through the gateway and were transported to the Earth of a parallel dimension, on which apparently no other human beings existed. . Colossus and Rogue of the X-Men arrive and help Ororo and Forge to fight the sheer never ending amount of Wraiths. Finally Forge has the idea that saves the day. He creates holographic images of the Spaceknights- the Roma's allies, the Wraith‘s archenemies, and while they are distracted preparing to fight them, the Plaza’s laser equipment kills all invaders. The heroes think the battle is over as suddenly a hole in reality opens and Shadowbeings emerge. Thus the Adversary had rid himself of the two people he regarded as the only real threat to his plans to destroy and remake the universe. He offered them the chance to become the "world spirits" of the new Earth he planned to create and to be the parents of its new human race.

Elsewhere, Kurt teleports Amanda Sefton to Forge’s skyscraper and Xavier telepathically contacts Illyana Rasputin to come there too. Together the two sorceresses are able to contain the Shadowbeings long enough till the cause for their appearance is found. The Dire Wraith that Storm left on the roof to freeze had not died of the cold, but was magically summoning the Shadowbeings. After that Wraith is killed, the fight is over. Forge finds Nazé unconscious, unaware that the old shaman had been replaced by a Wraith and that third Wraith tried to summon a Great Spirit, but was taken over by the magical entity instead.

In San Francisco, Val Cooper holds a press conference to talk about Freedom Force. She’s met by some resistance by the reporters, but handles them well.

In Murphy’s Gym, Rogue is approached by Mystique who bears news of ill tidings for the X-Men. She wants Rogue to go with her to avoid her impending doom, but she decides to stay with them. At a nearby club, Dazzler puts on a light show of her own, much to the dismay of Wolverine. He wants the X-Men to keep low profiles.

Downtown, Havok and Longshot, rescue a girl from a bunch of punks. Lt. Morrell shows up to arrest the would-be kidnappers and alerts Havok to the task force that’s looking for them.

A bit later, at Alcatraz, the X-Men discuss Destiny’s precognitive vision about their death. The key lies with Storm, so they all decide to go look for her.

The X-Men are in Eagle Plaza with Madelyne Pryor and their prisoner Mystique, while outside Freedom Force has the unconscious Rogue, Psylocke and Dazzler as captives. Both teams are unsure what to do. Dazzler comes around and blinding Freedom Force, she tries to get away with her teammates, though Spiral, unaffected by the blast, rushes over and magically attaches Destiny’s mask to Dazzler’s face, blinding her. Both Psylocke and Rogue attack Spiral, but neither is able to best her. The rift in the night sky grows bigger and dinosaurs and Neanderthals start to appear, causing trouble all over Dallas. Wolverine decides to call a truce with Mystique so the teams can help each other figure things out. Split up in pairs of two, Freedom Force and the X-Men save many innocent bystanders and help the local authorities.

A duo of reporters, Neal Conan and Manoli Wetherell, arrives at the scene and is in for the story of their lives. They capture it all on tape. Later they interview Mystique, and when Manoli makes an off color comment about the X-Men, Havok angrily states how the X-Men have saved the world time and again. Spiral attempts to undo the spell she put on Dazzler, but the chaos interferes with her magic.

A group of Cheyenne approaches, eager to help. They know a way to end this chaos, but their leader is shot by a human, apparently a racist. A firefight ensue killing most of the Indians.

Back at the plaza, Colossus checks on Destiny. She mumbles something about him being a temporal fluke. She also says that death surrounds the X-Men. Colossus decides to enter Eagle Plaza.

Psylocke stops him and scanning his thoughts, she detects Roma’s presence. The X-Men are curious about her involvement. Colossus doesn’t know, but has a weird feeling about Eagle Plaza. Rogue and Spiral go to check out Forge’s penthouse. Spiral gets there first and is sent flying from the rooftop in a huge fireball. Luckily, Rogue and Blob act fast and everyone survives. Wolverine decides to use the stairs, but it turns out the entire building is turning into a scene from Vietnam, where Forge lost his arm and leg and renounced his magic. A Viet Cong soldier pops out and fires some shots. Colossus deflects the bullets. The human that shot the Indian chief takes out this guy too. The X-Men decide they have to keep moving. Wolverine wants to take the X-Men in the building, but also wants Freedom Force to stay outside. Mystique tries to fight it, but Wolverine’s logic wins. Neal and Manoli are both touched by what he says and record it all on camera.

While the Adversary then destroyed Forge’s mountain of power and widened his control to the city of Dallas, Forge’s home, where time and space suddenly went crazy, Storm and the severely injured Forge found themselves transported to another Earth, devoid of any human life. They spent a year there (while hardly any time passed on the other Earth) – most of it separate, as Storm journeyed to Africa to do a lot of soul-searching – and realized that the Adversary, even as he was preparing to destroy the other Earth, was giving them the chance to become parents to a new humanity on this world. Admitting their love for each other, they nevertheless decided that they had to try and save the “real” Earth.

Meanwhile, Storm and Forge are still in another world. Forge is still recovering from his knife wound, and Ororo explains that she could not bring herself to kill him. The world they are in seems to be a copy of Earth, though there is no technology, no civilization and no humans besides them. Later they find Forge’s mountain of power demolished. Storm wonders what happened to Nazé and Forge assumes he’s just a pawn now. It’s all just a game to the Adversary. Forge thinks they will be safe in this world. Storm, however, knows this is not their true home. Storm leaves him to explore this world and eventually makes it to her native Africa. There she realizes that this Earth has no soul and that she might be destined to become this Earth’s "Bright Lady".