Following right from last issue, the X-Men have been
trapped in Murderworld, while Arcade is having the time of his life! He revels
in the fun, while the captured Colleen Wing admonishes him from the sidelines.
After Colleen questions his sanity, Arcade details his backstory. He was a
regular spoiled rich kid in Beverley Hills until his father cut off his money,
so in turn he killed his father. He discovered his talent for killing and
eventually opened up Murderworld to do it in style, but even that became boring,
until he was contracted to kill Spider-Man and Captain Britain (in Marvel
Team-Up #65-66). After that, he was contacted by Black Tom and Juggernaut to
kill the X-Men, bringing us to the present. He checks in on Cyclops and
Wolverine, who have just come face-to-face with the brainwashed Colossus!
Colossus tosses both of them, and both are sent through secret revolving doors
in the walls. Colossus is briefly glad he didn’t kill them, before his
brainwashing takes effect once more and he sets off to finish the job.
Over with Storm, the room she’s in has almost
completely filled with water, with seemingly no way out. Back with Cyclops, the
secret door he fell through deposited him in the death trap designed for
Nightcrawler. He spots one of the deadly cars heading right for Kurt and blasts
it, before Kurt reveals that there are many more where that came from.
Meanwhile, Wolverine ended up with Banshee, in the midst of a holographic
battlefield. Wolverine is able to use his senses to locate the wall and cuts
his way into a maintenance tunnel, where the two find robot duplicates of
Magneto and the Hulk waiting for them! Meanwhile, Storm has devised a plan. She
gets as much of the little remaining air as possible and swims down to the pipe
the water is being pumped through. She sends a continuous lightning bolt
through it, hoping that the power will eventually burst the pipe and lead her
way to freedom, hopefully before her lungs give out!
Back with Cyclops and Nightcrawler, they’re getting
swarmed on all sides by the deadly cars. Cyclops then pulls a really stylish
move and perfectly ricochets his optic blast off each of the cars, taking them
all out in a single blast! He blasts a hole into the maintenance tunnels as
well and he and Nightcrawler split up. Nightcrawler finds himself right outside
the main control room and decides to have some fun with Arcade. He teleports
right in front of Arcade, giving him quite the fright, before taking out
Arcade’s assistant, Miss Locke. Nightcrawler uses the shotgun she had to
destroy the controls, before he gets a surprise dose of gas once again, getting
captured once more.
Cyclops helps out Banshee and Wolverine with the
robots, before water suddenly bursts through the walls, flooding the entire
place, after Storm’s ploy eventually worked. Cyclops gives the unconscious
Storm mouth-to-mouth, and she eventually regains consciousness after several
fraught moments. It’s then that the brainwashed Colossus appears once more,
quickly knocking around both Banshee and Wolverine. He lifts Cyclops and Storm
both up by their necks, attempting to finish his mission. Through choked
breaths, Storm and Cyclops both try to get through to Piotr, reminding him that
the X-Men have become like a family and that he’s like a brother to them. This
finally snaps Colossus out of it, and he hugs his friends close. Arcade
realizes his defeat and encases the X-Men in a metal sphere, sending them
shooting out a series of tunnels, into the outside world once more.
Nightcrawler and the captured women are sent down in parachutes, while Arcade
leaves a note that he’ll be back. Wolverine wants to go after him right away,
but Cyclops suggests they enjoy the win and prepare for the next time they have
to face him.