A few days after their battle with Proteus, the X-Men
finally head home from Scotland. Banshee decides to stay with Moira MacTaggert,
officially leaving the team, both to care for Moira and due to feeling like
he’s no use without his powers. Cyclops once again offers team membership to
Multiple Man, Havok, and Polaris, but each one turns him down, opting for more
normal lives. The X-Men say their farewells and take off for home. Nightcrawler
pilots the long journey back while Colossus wrestles with his killing Proteus
last issue, wondering if what he did was right. As the blackbird streaks across
the sky, it passes another aircraft containing Jason Wyngarde who uses his
powers to strengthen his hold over Jean Grey, making her think once more that
her consciousness has shifted to the distant past, finding herself aboard a
fancy ship in the 18th century. She’s encountered by the ship’s
captain and snaps out of it to find she’s actually talking to Scott. This gives
Scott and Jean the chance to finally talk and reconnect after spending so long
thinking the other was dead. Scott admits that he shut off emotionally, not
being able to handle the seeming reality that she was dead, and they reaffirm
their love for each other.
Hours later, the X-Men finally land outside the
mansion, when their sensors pick up the presence of someone inside! They rush
in to find Charles Xavier returned to earth, allowing Xavier to have a joyful
and emotional reunion with his beloved students. Days later, Scott and Jean are
finishing up a relaxing stroll, when Wolverine storms out of the Danger Room,
tired of Xavier treating him like an amateur kid. This leads to a conversation
that Scott was afraid of, as he confronts Xavier about his handling and
treatment of the team now that he’s back. Scott argues that the new team aren’t
novices and Xavier can’t just treat them the same as the old team, while Xavier
sees Scott’s words as his failing to whip the new team into shape. Before Scott
can get through to him, Cerebro suddenly detects signatures of two new mutants,
one in New York and one in Chicago.
Meanwhile, this information is also made aware to the
Hellfire Club, due to the bugs planted by Warhawk all the way back in UXM #110,
revealing that he had been working for them all this time! The Hellfire Club’s
leader, Sebastian Shaw, announces their plan to intercept and recruit these two
new mutants before the X-Men can, while hopefully eliminating some of the X-Men
along the way. We then cut to a suburb of Chicago, where we meet the first of
these new mutants, a young girl named Kitty Pryde. She makes her way home from
dance practice, where her parents introduce her to Emma Frost, really White
Queen of the Hellfire Club, there under the pretense of getting Kitty to join
her Massachusetts school. Kitty is immediately skeeved out by Frost, who leaves
soon enough, passing Xavier, arriving with Storm, Wolverine, and Colossus,
there to recruit Kitty themselves.
Xavier stays behind to talk with Kitty’s parents,
while she heads out to a local ice cream place with the others. Kitty and Storm
quickly start to bond, and Storm tells her who they really are and that Kitty
is a mutant. Suddenly, armored goons of the Hellfire Club bust through the
wall, each one specially designed to deal with one of the X-Men present. The
X-Men struggle a bit with their attackers, and in the confusion, in order to
avoid injury, Kitty jumps back and accidentally falls right through the wall
and into the alley outside! The X-Men continue to fight, until they decide to
switch dance partners, each able to easily take out the henchmen designed for
each other. Before they can interrogate their attackers, the three X-Men are
knocked out by a telepathic assault from Emma Frost. They’re taken aboard the
Hellfire Club’s hovercraft and strip searched, while Emma decides to come back
for Kitty later. However, little does she know that Kitty snuck aboard the
hovercraft, as she phases through from the rear compartment. Kitty wants to
help the captured X-Men, but doesn’t know what she can do, all alone against an
entire aircraft of enemies! To be continued!