On Muir Isle, Banshee is attacked and captured by who
appears to be a vengeful Thunderbird, back to life! Elsewhere, Charles Xavier
awakens in the lair of the Morlocks, dressed in some of their clothes. Callisto
tells him that he was found beaten nearly to death and dragged down here to be
healed, though he’ll still need to take it easy. Xavier offers for the Morlocks
to join the X-Men, when Callisto is alerted to some Morlock children that were
found murdered. This enrages her, pointing out to Xavier that mutants will
never truly be safe. Meanwhile, near the Rocky Mountains, Banshee’s attacker,
really James Proudstar, visits the spot where his brother Thunderbird died all
those years ago. He plans to make the X-Men, and especially Xavier, pay for his
brother’s death, when he’s surprised by two of the other Hellions, Roulette and
Empath, there to help him. Empath reveals he also brought Firestar to help out,
and has her completely in love with him, enthralled by his ability to
manipulate emotions.
Back at Xavier’s School, the X-Men are engaged in a
Danger Room session, a game of tag in which Cannonball is “it.” The session is
interrupted by the return of Xavier and Callisto, in which everyone gets a kick
out of Xavier’s current Morlock attire! Meanwhile, Storm finally sets out for
Africa, after a couple of roadblocks. Sometime later, the X-Men are sent a
message from James Proudstar telling them that he has Banshee and plans to kill
him unless the X-Men come to get him. Wolverine points out that to rescue
Banshee, they’ll have to invade NORAD headquarters, which might end up making
them outlaws in fact as well as name. They obviously go anyway, refusing to
leave Banshee behind. Kitty Pryde phases into the building and Rachel forms a
mental link with everyone, allowing Nightcrawler to teleport everyone else
inside too. Kurt then talks to Xavier back in the Blackbird, uneasy about
leaving him there but seeing no other alternative and Xavier assures Kurt he’ll
be fine.
However, no sooner has Xavier been left alone than
he’s ambushed by Roulette and Empath. Empath uses his powers to send Lockheed
flying off in fear and Xavier is hit with some nerve gas. Rachel senses
Xavier’s trouble and Nightcrawler curses himself for being so foolish, feeling
like he’s failing at leading effectively. Nightcrawler asks Rachel to locate
Banshee but her traumatic experiences at having been used as a Hound in her time
to hunt down other mutants cause her to completely shut down. Kitty and Wolverine
then head off through the complex to look for Banshee while Nightcrawler
teleports Rogue to watch over Xavier. In the War Room, the Hellions pose as
regular civilians on a tour through the complex. Roulette uses her bad luck
powers to disrupt the X-Men’s cloaking, making NORAD aware of their presence,
while Empath subtly manipulates everyone to respond more aggressively.
Meanwhile, Kitty and Wolverine find Banshee, and James
Proudstar as well. Wolverine and the new Thunderbird duke it out while Kitty
gets Banshee out of there. She comes back for Logan, only to be overcome by the
neurotoxin James is pumping through the room. Wolverine starts to be overcome
by it as well as he tries to get Kitty out and both collapse. Though it would
be easy to leave them, James just can’t bring himself to let them die and drags
Kitty and Wolverine out to safety. Meanwhile, the base’s heavily armored guards
called Secbots find Nightcrawler and Colossus and Nightcrawler quickly
teleports out and returns with Rogue. Nightcrawler is quickly captured while
Colossus is suddenly tackled out of the base by Firestar, leaving Rogue to
protect Rachel. Nightcrawler is brought before the General, and Empath uses his
powers to send Nightcrawler into a rage, egging him on to attack the soldiers!
Rogue then rescues Colossus by absorbing Firestar’s powers and knocking her
out, realizing at the same time that she’s being manipulated.
Kitty grabs Empath and phases him through floor,
allowing Wolverine to intimidate the kid into fainting. This frees Nightcrawler
from his manipulation and he grabs Roulette to take her out of the equation as
well. The X-Men are gaining ground but still scattered, leaving Xavier wide
open to be confronted by James. James blames Xavier for his brother’s death,
convinced Xavier psychically forced Thunderbird to join him. Xavier counters
that John Proudstar was too proud a man to be manipulated by anyone for
too long and that he did everything he could to save him. James raises his
knife. He falters, and finds he can’t kill Xavier. Xavier assures him that this
does not make him a coward, and instead is the right way to honor his brother’s
memory. Later, at the mansion, Xavier offers James and Firestar places at the
school, but both elect to return to Emma Frost’s Massachusetts Academy, both
feeling it’s what they have to do. Things end peaceably between all, though the
X-Men’s reputation is indeed now that of fugitives. Finally, while staying with
Jaime Rodriguez, the man he saved, Nimrod realizes that he’s not quite in his
own past. He hears a news report stating that Juggernaut is on the loose and
decides he must hunt down and terminate both Juggernaut and the X-Men!