In the sub-basement of the X-Men’s base, Dazzler gazes
into the Siege Perilous and sees all of the other directions her life could
have taken. As she looks longer, she witnesses each of these other versions of
herself dying horrible deaths! Shocked at what she sees, a monstrous image of
herself erupts from the Siege, reflecting on the computer screens all around
her! She rejects the notion that she’s marked for death, and the image
vanishes, leaving Dazzler in pitch darkness. She boots up a cassette tape to
generate some sound, allowing her to refill her energy and light the place back
up. Feeling silly at her reaction, she looks back to the Siege and discovers
that her hand is bleeding! Meanwhile, in Manhattan, Nimrod continues his
activities of acting as an extreme police officer. He tracks down a group of
drug pushers and incinerates them when they don’t comply. He destroys their
drug stash and decides to take the money they accumulated to help repair the
community. Finally, he leaves a handprint on the wall, a calling card so the
rest of the gang will know he means business!
Back in Australia, Wolverine freshens up, trying out
some new hair gel, much to Storm’s amusement. Wolverine requests a leave of
absence for awhile to deal with some personal business. Storm offers assistance
but he assures her that this is something he needs to handle alone, and not to
expect him back until the job is done! In Washington D.C., Rogue, with Carol
Danvers’ psyche in control, visits the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where her
brother’s name is inscribed. She tells him that she misses him and that he
shouldn’t have died, before taking off once more. Back in Australia, Havok,
Colossus, and Longshot engage in some training. Longshot throws his blades up
in the air, and Havok tries to shoot them out of the air while simultaneously
avoiding Colossus’s attacks. He isn’t completely successful, which bothers him,
feeling he needs better control of his destructive powers. Dazzler then
arrives, hurt they didn’t ask her to join, and completely shows Havok up by
easily shooting several more of the blades out of the air!
Back in Manhattan once more, at the headquarters of
the Hellfire Club, Sharon Kelly gleefully meets with two of her friends and
former coworkers. Having gone from being one of the Hellfire Club’s maids to
marrying Senator Kelly, she decides to surprise her husband while he meets with
Sebastian Shaw. Senator Kelly and Shaw discuss their Sentinel Program that
never really got off the ground. Shaw proposes a new system that can learn from
its mistakes as well as reconstitute itself, solving their problem of the
Sentinels getting destroyed too easily. Kelly is skeptical, and feels the risks
outweigh the benefits. His train of thought is derailed when his wife surprises
him in one of her old maid outfits, thoroughly flustering him, much to Shaw’s
amusement. Elsewhere in Manhattan, Carol/Rogue gets some of her old things from
Carol’s landlord, including her old Ms. Marvel costume, and runs into Psylocke
waiting for her. The two talk, with Carol stressing about her whole situation
with Rogue. She admits to wishing she could get a full year in control, just to
accomplish some things she’s always wanted to, hating only getting brief
snippets of a life through someone else’s eyes.
Elsewhere still, at the construction site that Nimrod
works at in his human guise, he comes across a strange circuitry module. A
program within begins to invade him, shifting him into the Master Mold! While
Carol and Psylocke make plans to possibly go skiing, Psylocke suddenly hears
the psychic cries of the commotion happening with Master Mold! Carol flies over
to find Master Mold using nearby construction materials to build himself
taller. Master Mold swats her out of the air and she goes flying right into the
car Senator Kelly and his wife are riding in! Everyone is completely stunned,
especially Carol as control of the body reverts back to Rogue! Kelly’s wife
gets her husband out of the car before going back for the hazy Rogue. Rogue
tells Sharon to run for it, but Master Mold ends up blasting her, leaving her
to die in her husband’s arms! As Master Mold bares down on Rogue, she finds
that she can’t move and wonders if she could be done for! To be continued!
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