Aboard a Shi’ar cruiser in space, Colossus and Kitty
are suddenly attacked by…Colossus! The new Colossus tackles the original out
into space and then plugs the hole to prevent being sucked out as well.
Colossus is then stunned to see Kitty transform into one of the Brood! He runs
into another room only to find Zsaji, his deceased other love. She turns into a
skeleton, once more causing him to run. He’s suddenly back in Russia and once
more saves his sister Illyana from being run over by a tractor. She chastises
him for saving her, for in living she’ll go on to become warped by the demon
Belasco! Kitty, Zsaji, and Illyana all berate Colossus for the ways in which
he’s failed them and feel that he needs to suffer too! Colossus then awakens
with a start, revealing everything to have been a terrible nightmare. He
doesn’t recognize his surroundings but quickly discovers that he and Kitty
Pryde have been captured by Arcade!
Elsewhere, in Alaska, Cyclops receives a call from
Moira MacTaggert with concern about Xavier. He plans to head out to see what
the problem is, and Madelyne tells him to hurry back. Meanwhile, Arcade treats
Colossus and Kitty to breakfast when a small missile comes through the window
gunning for him! Kitty and Colossus deal with the missile and Arcade leads them
further into Murderworld. He shows off his robot duplicates of the X-Men and
tells them that Doctor Doom is trying to kill him and they’re his only
protection! Kitty doesn’t quite buy it and the two of them decide to play along
for now, until they can discover what he’s really up to! In Lower Manhattan,
Jaime Rodriguez and Nimrod, in his human form, are enjoying coffee when
suddenly their diner is held up by two would-be robbers. Nimrod reverts to his
natural form and incinerates the two thieves, earning the admiration of the
crowd inside, who hail him as a hero!
Back in Murderworld, Arcade’s patterned it to look
like 1940s Manhattan and gifts Colossus and Kitty his army of X-Men robots to
help defend him. Kitty is still suspicious, which only intensifies as they’re
suddenly surrounded by an army of Doom’s robots and fighter aircraft! They
fight back, with many of the X-bots getting destroyed in the process, their
forces starting to get overrun. Eventually, Colossus destroys the main, largest
robot, saving Kitty in the process. He pours his heart out to her, admitting
his guilt at the fact that Zsaji gave up her life to save him. He wants to
honor her memory by proving himself worthy of her sacrifice, feeling that it
may have influenced what happened between them.
They’re then suddenly attacked by Doctor Doom himself
in a fighter jet. Colossus throws a metal pole straight through the jet,
causing it to crash right into the building where Arcade is surveilling
everything! Colossus throws Kitty up to protect Arcade and makes his way up
himself. He finds Kitty apparently killed by Doom, only for that one to be
proven as a robot when the real Kitty pops up and short-circuits Doom’s armor!
She reveals that she’d been watching over Arcade the whole time and reprogrammed
one of the robots to take her place, making Colossus feel like a fool for
pouring his heart out to a machine. Arcade then reveals that “Doom” was really
his assistant Miss Locke the entire time and the whole thing was a perverse
game for his birthday! She had 24 hours to kill Arcade by any means necessary
and the possibility of dying just made things that much more fun for him!
Arcade drops Kitty and Colossus back at the mansion, and the two decide to try
and be friends, Colossus finally having worked through some of his issues.
Lastly, in Africa, Storm awakens from where she was left for dead last issue,
determined that death shall not claim her yet! To be continued!