As the X-Men work to repair the Danger Room,
Charles Xavier ponders Magneto, the X-Men’s greatest foe. Xavier has the feeling that
Magneto may be up to something and reflects on their history and differing
views. Despite that, Xavier realizes
that the two of them are alike in more ways than he’d like to admit. Just then,
Kitty Pryde comes whizzing through the wall, sporting a garish costume she made
for herself. Kitty’s entrance through the wall shorted out the computers,
causing Xavier to lose all of the data he was poring through. Xavier angrily
chases Kitty out and she drops through the floor into the Danger Room below.
Storm notices that Kitty seems down and decides to try and cheer her up. She
whips Kitty into a wind, allowing the other X-Men to toss her from one to the
next, lifting her spirits and providing them with a workout at the same time.
Just then, Professor Xavier mentally appears with a
mission for the X-Men. They then make their way to Magneto’s old volcanic base
in Antarctica where they last fought him. Storm ponders what they’ll do if they
actually find Magneto. Wolverine then finds Kitty in one of the Blackbird’s
storage lockers, having stowed away in order to join the mission. Storm isn’t
happy with Kitty but given that they are almost at their destination, decides
that they’ll just have to keep an eye on her while they search the base. They
make their way down the hole that Phoenix blasted to the surface all the way
back in UXM #113, and Colossus smashes through the wall, where they find the
base only partially covered in cooled lava, with some machinery and areas
cleared out, indicating someone has been here since their battle. The X-Men
decide to split up to search the base more quickly and thoroughly.
While searching, Storm suddenly hears a voice that she
thinks belongs to Garokk, remembering how she failed to save him way back in
UXM #116. She checks in with Wolverine who states that he hasn’t detected
anything there besides them. Meanwhile, Colossus and Kitty reach a dead end,
finding only a wall, where Colossus can feel the lava from the volcano just on
the other side. Suddenly, Colossus is hit from behind by Garokk, very much
alive and much larger than last time, half covered in melted lava. He reveals
that he was rescued by Magneto and set to guard this hideout from intruders.
Kitty dives through him, noting that it hurt him, and Garokk punches the wall,
causing the lava to flow through the base once more! A panicked Kitty calls out
for Storm who immediately whips up a freezing wind to combat the lava and ends
up freezing the entire base! Storm is then stunned by a frozen Colossus, having
been thrown down the length of the tunnel.
They’re soon found by Nightcrawler and Wolverine, who
combat Garokk when he reappears, with little success. Meanwhile, Kitty is
revealed to have survived by phasing the instant the lava started flowing,
phasing back into the cavern, determined to help however she can. She finds the
others just as Garokk is about to throw Storm down into a hole he blasted, so
that she can experience the fate she left him to. Wolverine throws Kitty so she
can phase through Garokk while Nightcrawler tries to get Storm from his grasp.
However, Garokk jumps down into the hole with Storm! Kitty heads down, finding
Storm precariously on a rock, when suddenly Garokk attacks again. Kitty phases
once more and Garokk once again is sent plummeting to his apparent death.
Nightcrawler teleports Storm back to safety and the X-Men head back home,
having confirmed that Magneto does have something planned. Speaking of, Cyclops
and Lee Forrester are given new clothes in the mysterious city, and Magneto
reveals that he knows his guest is Cyclops and that as long as he is here, his
optic blasts will not work, leaving him completely at Magneto’s mercy!