After being led into a trap at the end of last issue,
the X-Men find themselves face to face with the unstoppable Juggernaut, as
Storm suffers from a severe claustrophobia-induced panic attack! While the
other X-Men battle Juggernaut, Banshee runs straight for his evil cousin,
Black Tom Cassidy and, knowing that each’s powers won’t work on the other, deigns to
take the more direct approach. Colossus wants to help the paralyzed Storm, but
Wolverine has other ideas, spinning Colossus around and right at Juggernaut!
Wolverine and Colossus take their lumps while Nightcrawler takes up the mission
of trying to snap Storm out of it, knowing that she’s the only one who would
stand a chance against Juggernaut. Nightcrawler resorts to taunting Juggernaut
and doing his best to keep him from Storm, knowing the only hope they’ll have
will be to outthink him.
Storm, meanwhile, curses herself and her inability to
help her friends when they need her most. She thinks back to her childhood and
her parents, an American father who married her mother, an African princess.
They moved from his original New York home to Cairo and five years later,
they’re caught in the middle of the Suez War. Her father tries to get them to
safety when a French fighter jet gets shot down and crashes straight into their
home. Young Ororo is buried alive in debris, while her parents are not so
lucky, giving birth to her claustrophobia. She eventually frees herself from
her prison and wanders across Cairo, running into a man named Achmed El Gibar,
who teaches her all he knows about being a thief. She perfects her thieving
skills before being pulled back home towards the Serengeti Plain, where
Charles Xavier eventually finds her.
Speaking of, back in the hospital in New York, Xavier
feels the pain and danger that his students are in. Xavier tells Cyclops that
he urgently needs to speak with him, while Jean Grey tries to introduce the
Professor to her roommate, Misty Knight. Xavier rudely brushes them off and
Jean apologizes to Misty, who is more concerned about Jean. Jean then makes a
shocking admission to Misty, that she died in the shuttle and brought herself
back to life! In another room, Xavier orders Cyclops to head to Ireland ASAP to
aid the other X-Men, but Cyclops refuses. He reasons that he needs to stay by
Jean’s side and that he wouldn’t be able to get there in time to help anyway.
Xavier lashes in anger before his mind is overtaken once more by the images and
face he’s been seeing in his dreams!
Back at Cassidy Keep, the battle continues to go
poorly for the X-Men. Juggernaut takes out Wolverine and just before he can
deliver the finishing blow, Nightcrawler swings down and splashes a flaming
torch right in Juggernaut’s face! Black Tom retaliates by blasting
Nightcrawler, causing him to hit the wall hard! Nightcrawler is then found and
absconded by a few mysterious figures, who pull him into a secret compartment
in the wall! Black Tom then taunts Banshee, telling him that he’ll never know
who hired Black Tom and Juggernaut to kill the X-Men, before knocking him out.
Colossus makes one last effort to defeat Juggernaut, as their mighty blows
collapse the whole wall on top of them. When the rubble clears, only Juggernaut
is left standing. Storm tries to muster up an attack but is taken out as well,
leaving the X-Men defeated, to be used as bait to lure Professor Xavier into a
trap! To be continued!