The Inferno Crossover

Jean comforted Scott, who finally opened up to her and admitted to her and him that he had married Madelyne Pryor mainly because she looked like Jean. The two of them restarted their relationship.

A short time later, Jean saw her sister, Sara, on television. Sara Grey had become a spokeswoman for mutant rights and was commenting on the firebombing of an apartment that belonged to relatives of a mutant (Karma’s siblings, actually). Worrying about Sara, who still believed her sister to be dead, Jean and Cyclops visited her house, only to find it emptied of all personal effects and without any sign of the whereabouts of Sara and her family. They received a threatening phone call and moments later the place was firebombed.

The X-Men’s death, made Jean think of others close to her and so she finally visited her parents to let them know she was alive.

Eventually, they tracked Scott’s son down to a secret lab below the same orphanage where Scott grew up in. Strangely, that orphanage was filled with mutant children. When they tried to free the baby, they were attacked by another group that also wanted to liberate the mutant children: A group of brainwashed mutant children led by Nanny, a crazy scientist, obsessed with the idea of saving young mutants, and her special charge, the powerful Orphanmaker. Jean recognized Sara’s children, Joey and Gaylin – her nephew and her niece, as part of Nanny’s army. During their battle, they couldn’t prevent demons from snatching the baby.

Scott later returned to Alaska, but assumed that Madelyne had moved away with the child. He learned differently when the X-Men’s death in Dallas was broadcasted live on national TV also. Among them was his wife, pleading him to find their son. The precog Destiny pointed Cyclops to the orphanage in Nebraska. When Cyclops and Marvel Girl mounted a rescue attempt, they were blocked by Nanny and the Orphanmaker, along with their Lost Boys. While they were battling Nanny's forces, a group of demons came in and kidnapped Nathan and other young mutants babies.

The Press Gang (Punchout, Pipeline and Hawkshaw) travels to Australia to retrieve a former Genoshan nurse Jenny Ransome, who tested positive for mutant genes. Madelyne Pryor gets in the way and is taken captive too.

Later they also capture Wolverine and Rogue. Pipeline teleports them all back to Genosha, but leave some Magistrates behind, which are defeated by the other X-Men.  The X-Men learn everything about Genosha and the mutate process designed by Genegineer David Moreau. His son’s girlfriend Jenny Ransome and Madelyne Pryor are examined and prepared for the process.

The powers of Rogue and Logan are canceled; Rogue allows the Carol persona to take over. Rogue/Carol and Wolverine break out of the Genoshan prison.

The demon N’astirh wants to talk to Madelyne.

Rogue and Logan, though powerless, rescue Phillip Moreau from certain death. Testing Madelyne Pryor for powers a lab explodes. The rest of the X-Men arrive on Genosha.

Madelyne undergoes a strange transformation; in her mind she becomes the Phoenix and destroys the city, in reality she caused the lab explosion, yet she has no memory of the incident.

Jenny Ransome is turned completely into a mutate. The X-Men surprise-attack the Magistrate citadel and are able to free their captive friends and members. Psylocke forces Wipeout to return Rogues and Wolverines powers. Madelyne wonders why she finds the baby-breeding chambers in the labs familiar. Havok destroys the Magistrate citadel. Then Phillip and Jenny leave the country.

In Mister Sinister’s hideout Malice discovers that she’s permanently bonded to Polaris. The X-Men find out that Jean Grey is still alive and she with the X-Factor. Carol and Rogue start to share the body, Carol proves to be capable to master the girl’s mutant powers. Madelyne and Alex start to fall in love, Madelyne bargains with the demon N'astirh about finding her son.

Madelyne evolves into the Goblyn Queen. She transforms John and Elaine Grey into her pet demons. With N'astirh's help she searches for her son, but instead she finds out that Mister Sinister created her in a lab.

When the X-Men track the Marauders to their new hideout, the Morlocks alley, a battle begins. Clones have replaced all the Marauders who were killed before.

Psylocke tricks Scrambler into using his powers on Arclight, both of them are rendered unconscious or dead. Unnoticed by anyone, Blockbuster gets abducted by demons.

The X-Men continue to battle the Marauders in demonic New York. Some of them are killed; others are unconscious, only Malice gets away. The X-Men are corrupted by the demonic magic around; they become more and more bloodthirsty, except for Colossus who is protected from magic by his metallic hide. He temporarily leaves the team to search for Illyana.

In Nebraska Madelyne learns her origin from Sinister. She is a tube-grown clone of Jean Grey, and started to really live on the day Phoenix died on the moon. N’astirh retrieves baby Christopher and gives it to Madelyne who plans to sacrifice him.

Discovering that Madelyne was their true foe, if they wanted to save the baby and the world, X-Men and X-Factor fought her demons, while Jean and Madelyne eventually found themselves separated from the others in a telekinetic bubble. Having learned of her origins, Madelyne hated Jean so much that she killed herself and forced Jean into a mental bond to drag her down into death with her.

In order to survive, Jean was forced to reintegrate the portion of soul, essence and life-force of herself that from Phoenix had gone to Maddie, the portion which she had previously subconsciously rejected. Along with it she also got Madelyne’s and Phoenix’s memories and personalities too. Having barely had time to digest all that happened Jean found herself under a psychic attack by Mister Sinister. Having lost the clone he now wanted the original. Therefore, he attempted to erase her memories while she was in a vulnerable state with the intention to later reprogram her in his image. With the help of Psylocke, Cyclops and Storm entered Jean’s mind and convinced her splintered personalities to fight back and drive him from her mind.

X-Men and X-Factor meet for the first time since the X-Men “died” in Dallas. The Goblyn Queen plays the part of plain Madelyne, and the X-Men defend her from X-Factor. N’astirh picks her and the baby up and takes them to the Empire State Building, Madelyne lures Havok into following them, she manipulates him into joining them as Goblyn Prince. Madelyne promises to sacrifice the baby in N'astirh’s master spell (which permanently breaks the wall between Limbo and earth) if he brings her Jean’s soul. Together the X-Men and X-Factor completely destroy N’astirh, but Madelyne and her followers capture Jean. In her madness, Madelyne commits suicide.

Nathan Christopher was taken to X-Factor's Ship, where he was cared for by his father and half-mother. Soon, he started to show his heritage as the boy manifested a protective force bubble around himself whenever he was in danger.

Christopher remained in the care of X-Factor, until the Eternal One- Apocalypse kidnapped him. Taking Nathan to his base on the moon, Apocalypse used Nathan’s latent mutant abilities to turbo-charge his power, transforming him into Apocalypse-Prime. X-Factor followed Nathan’s and Apocalypse to the moon and confronted his champions, the Riders of the Storm, a group of entranced Inhumans.

During the battle, a woman, answering to the named Askani, appeared through a time-portal, claiming to have come from nearly two millennia in the future to save Nathan Christopher. Indeed, she stopped Beast from trying to remove Nate from the power drainer he was in, which would have killed him instantly with a cosmic energy pulse. Instead, Askani took the pulse herself; shorting out the equipment she needed to safely use her time-portals. Meanwhile, Cyclops himself destroyed Apocalypse-Prime and Nate was released. However, Nathan had been infected with a techno-organic virus that was destroying his body cell by cell. Askani told Cyclops and Marvel Girl that she had technology in her future that may be able to save Nathan, but her powers would most likely destroy her if she made another time-jump, resulting in the child being stuck in the future. Their choice was simple: let Nate die of the virus or never see him again. Cyclops chose to save him and sent his only son into the future.

With Inferno over, X-Factor soon ran into Nanny and the Orphanmaker again, this time managing to free Jean’s nephew and niece. While the children were still unwilling to accept Jean, whom they were brainwashed into believing was her enemy, they did recognize their grandparents – Jean’s parents - and were left in their care.

Jean has troubles to integrate the memories of Phoenix and Madelyne, a weakness that Sinister uses to enter Jean’s mind from afar. He attempts to destroy her by smashing one memory shard at a time, but facing the common foe; the personalities unite and block him out. Beast and Longshot get the Grey's and the baby to safety while the rest of the teams locate Sinister at Xavier’s mansion. There they defeat the remaining Marauders, but the mansion explodes rendering all unconscious. Sinister pulls Jean out of the debris, claiming her as his prize. He orders Malice to kill the rest as Longshot arrives on the scene.

In Danger Situations

Before the X-men faked death in Dallas, Magneto was invited to be one of the Inner Circle Club. Prior to these, when Magneto was the Headmaster of the Xavier's Institute, they had acquaintances then with Emma's Hellions. In fact, Magma was transferred to Massachusetts Academy and built relationship with Empath of the Hellions.

After the X-Men supposedly died in Dallas, the balance within the Inner Circle was in danger. Now, Magneto no longer was the representative of the hero team, he was only in charge of an untrained bunch of trainees that repeatedly disobeyed his orders. Emma realized that Shaw and Magneto did not get along and carefully pitted them against each other.

Shaw blamed Magneto that the demonic mess was his fault, as he apparently did not have full control over Magik. With her reduced to early childhood, the most promising of the New Mutants was lost to them. Shaw wanted Magneto out of the Circle and challenged him to a duel, but lost. Knowing that only one of them could remain as King, the matter was put to a vote. Promising her a free hand in the Amazonian area, Emma dragged Selene to her side and, together, the three voted Shaw out of the Hellfire Club. In retrospect, this might have been a bad move as Magneto soon lost interest in the Inner Circle and departed. On the other hand, though, Shaw was almost assassinated by his own son, forcing him to go into hiding and let everyone else believe him dead. Neither King would have remained with Emma for long.

Around the same time, Angelica Jones (Firestar) had to learn that the White Queen was a woman who carried grudges. Still bound by her promise to never interfere with her again, Emma tipped off Firestar's real name and location to Freedom Force, who immediately wanted to make her sign the Mutant Registration Act.

Yet, the resourceful young woman managed to avoid it and, several weeks later, joined the New Warriors. Discovering that somebody had hacked into her databanks (Night Trasher did it to learn how to contact Firestar), the White Queen thought that she was no longer bound by her vow and she investigated together with her Hellions. They tracked the hacker down to the New Warriors headquarters and, wanting Firestar back, they fought the team over her fate. However, the Warriors beat the Hellions and the White Queen left, though not before laughing at Firestar’s idealism, telling her that one day she would come back to her and apologize.

The Lost Souls

Piotr emerged in a loft in Manhattan, naked and virtually amnesiac. The loft belonged to Phillip Moreau and Jenny Ransome, Genoshan emigrants, who did not recognize Piotr from their earlier meeting as they had only seen him in armored form.

Utilizing his creative talent, he set up a new life for himself as an American painter in Soho, calling himself Peter Nicholas and soon became quite famous. Piotr also became romantically involved with Callisto around this time, which had been altered by Masque with the features of a beautiful model. "Nicholas" was almost completely unaware of his powers and his past with the X-Men, though he did encounter a number of faces from his past including X-Factor and Banshee and Forge, who were searching for the missing X-Men. Since Piotr seemed happy in his new life, they left him alone. If they would need him later on, they would know how to find him.

Philip Moreau and Jenny Ransome, fugitives from Genosha, are about to be kidnapped by Genoshan Magistrates, when an amnesiac Colossus suddenly shows up and intervenes on their behalf. Grateful, Phil and Jenny offer him a place to stay.

In Hollywood, an equally amnesiac Dazzler awakes on the property of her former boss, Lila Cheney, and is taken in by Lila’s guard Guido. Trying to figure out who she is, Alison goes clubbing and meets Fred Stanachek, a young man whom she once helped and who currently holds the rights to her aborted movie. Fred offers to make her a star, while elsewhere Eric Beale schemes to kill her.

In the meantime, the Genoshan Genegineer and Chief Magistrate decide to get the fugitives back at any cost.

After a crazed Eric Beale’s attempt on her life, Dazzler agrees to Fred Stanachek’s plan to promote Dazzler – the movie, to draw the killer out. She wonders though if this is truly what she wants out of life. Shortly before the premiere, in a careless moment, Ali is abducted and beaten unconscious. Later, almost powerless, she faces a drug-crazed Beale, intending to kill her. Using what’s left of her power to influence her mood, she actually calms and helps Beale and realizes that helping people is what she wants of life.

Colossus gets in a fight with thugs wearing X-Men masks, who are chasing his mystery woman and, once again, the woman disappears. Banshee and Forge are on Kyrinos, intending to secretly fly to Cairo. After seeing a magazine with Dazzler on the cover, Banshee decides to look her up first. This turns out to be fortunate, as their plane is destroyed by Fenris.

In a Madripoor restaurant, Wolverine, Psylocke and Jubilee are attacked by Harry Malone’s Harriers, who have taken on a commission to abduct Wolverine. With their friend gone, Psylocke and Jubilee, despite their mutual dislike, figure out a plan to find and rescue Wolverine. As the battle between the two groups comes to a standstill, Wolverine reveals that he had hired the Harriers in order to see how well Psylocke and Jubilee could work together.

In the meantime, Banshee and Forge have reached the X-Mansion, where they witness Jean Grey being kidnapped by a bunch of monstrous-looking creatures. In an Athens hospital, Donald Pierce makes the horribly injured Cylla Markham an offer she cannot refuse.

When the private jet Banshee and Forge intended to charter was shot down, they pretended to be dead themselves and went to what was left of Xavier’s School. There, they witnessed how strangely deformed Morlocks kidnapped Jean Grey. They saved her, but Jean and Banshee were kidnapped once again. Following them into the Morlocks tunnels, Forge reminisced about his time in the war.

Finally, he found Jean and Banshee, who had both been horribly transformed by the Morlock, Masque – same as the surviving Morlocks. The three of them worked together to save Masque’s other victims, an amnesiac Colossus and former Morlock leader, Callisto. Forge’s leadership brought them out again, which helped him deal with his past losses.

Banshee and Forge enter the Morlock tunnels to save an unconscious Jean Grey from the monsters that abducted her. Later, the three of them compare notes. Jean learns of the events that took place on Muir Isle and reveals that she knows for a fact that the X-Men are alive. They decide to relocate to X-Factor’s ship but, once Jean and Banshee step out of the room, they are teleported away. Using a scanner, Forge follows them into the Morlock tunnels. Recalling his own past in the Vietnam War, he comes across and fights several monsters with X-Men faces. To save Banshee, he is even forced to kill a Storm-look-alike. Jean assures him that was not Storm, and he sees that both Jean and Sean have been horribly altered.

In Washington, the chief of staff and Valerie Cooper have a clandestine meeting with Genoshan officials, who demand Jenny Ransome and Philip Moreau be handed over to them. They also inform Cooper that they intend to punish the X-Men for their attack on Genosha. Val and Seward worry that this might lead to a war – a war the USA wouldn’t necessarily win.

In Soho, artist Peter Nicholas (actually the real Colossus) runs across the mystery woman again. She finally appears in his loft, joined by the Morlock Masque, who teleports the three of them away.

In California, the Reavers destroy a faculty owned by Emma Frost, the Hellfire Club’s White Queen. They intend to destroy as much property of Emma’s as they have to, until they finally catch up with her.

To sum up, Forge and the transformed Jean Grey and Banshee are still in the Morlock Tunnels. Thanks to Forge’s devices, they learn that Peter Nicholas and Callisto have been abducted by Masque and are to be hunted. They decide to help. All the while, Forge has flashbacks to his last mission in Vietnam. Peter makes Callisto see that her exterior doesn’t have to decide who she is as a person, moments before they are attacked. As Masque stabs Peter, he automatically turns into Colossus again. Together with Forge, Jean and Banshee make a run for it, but are almost taken over by Masque, until Colossus stops him. They bluff that they are going to kill him so convincingly that Masque lets them go. Outside the Tunnels, Forge restores Banshee and Jean to their true forms, thanks to the cell samples he took earlier. Later, he says good-bye to the friends he lost in the war, happy that this time he managed to get his friends out.

In Washington, Val Cooper has a clandestine meeting with Soviet spy Alexej Vazhin, who is worried about new mutant factions and especially one he cannot yet name.

Psylocke reappears in China, captured by the Hand. Storm is on the run from Inspector Reizs.

In Hong Kong, Matsu'o Tsurayaba approaches The Mandarin with an offer of an alliance between his organization and The Hand, a ruthless clan of assassins. Matsu'o's deal is for the Hand to help the Mandarin build an empire unparalleled by any in the past, in exchange for gainful employment in its service. To begin their alliance, Matsu'o offers a gift; that of an ultimate assassin. This assassin is the long missing Psylocke, who has emerged from the Siege Perilous amnesiac and found by the Hand. Her body has been transformed into an Asian one. However, before Psylocke can become the pawn, the Hand requires, Matsu'o puts Psylocke through a telepathic brainwashing that forces her, within her mind, to fight and kill her old teammates. Part of her astral battles takes place in the Bodyshoppe run by Spiral and Mojo, suggesting their involvement in the physical changes made to her body.

In the service of the Hand and the Mandarin, the brainwashed Psylocke establishes herself as Lady Mandarin, re-establishing the Mandarin’s control over the Hong Kong underworld. With that accomplished, her master, Matsu'o Tsurayaba, orders her to take care of a potential, recently-arrived enemy, Patch.

Wolverine has come to Hong Kong with Jubilee’s help, although he is still suffering both from his extensive injuries and from hallucinations. He and Jubilee visit Rose Wu, a friend of his working for Landau, Luckman & Lake. While shopping, Jubilee and Rose’ granddaughter is kidnapped by Psylocke. The Ninjas later confront Wolverine. Logan has the upper hand in the battle until he recognizes his teammate, Psylocke. She uses his confusion to take him out.

In Cairo, Illinois, Storm, changed to a prepubescent child, is on the run from both the police and the Shadow King, not remembering her life with the X-Men.

The Hand has put Wolverine into a sensory deprivation tank and now Psylocke tries to brainwash him for the Hand. Meanwhile, Jubilee starts a scene and is caught and led away by The Mandarin. A short while later, chaos ensues after Psylocke forges a mental connection with Wolverine through her psychic blade.

Suddenly, she is tapped into his psychosis and reacts to his phantom versions of Nick fury and Carol Danvers as real. Wolverine uses the confusion to break out of the tank and faces Psylocke. A little later, Psylocke presents Wolverine’s lifeless body to the Mandarin, announcing that he is dead and causing an enraged Jubilee cuts loose with her powers. Psylocke, who has her old personality back, attacks the Mandarin. Severely outmatched, she orders Jubilee to flee with Wolverine. Before the Mandarin can kill her, Wolverine threatens him with his claws and they reach a compromise. Later, the three X-Men leave Hong Kong. Jubilee is still distrustful of Betsy, as Betsy is of herself. Wolverine trusts her because he has no choice.