During a concert with their band, Lila Cheney sings
her heart out while a still-hiding Dazzler provides backup vocals. However,
Malice appears once more to Dazzler and convinces her that she should be
the one leading the show, lest she be forgotten! With Malice’s hold on her
growing, Dazzler takes over the performance, using her powers to put on an
impressive light show that the audience eats up! Later, Lila confronts Dazzler
about the stunt and Dazzler decides to strike out on her own! Meanwhile, at the
Xavier Institute, Storm, Rogue, and Psylocke inspect the damage Cerebro
sustained during Sabretooth’s attack last issue. Rogue considers it a lost cost
and figures only Xavier himself would be able to fix it at this point. She
heads out to scout the school grounds while Psylocke senses Wolverine and
Callisto sparring in the Danger Room. She notes that their fight seems awfully
real and heads to stop it but Storm says to let them be, knowing full well the
skill both possess. Their duel ends in essentially a draw and Callisto admits
she wishes she could do more for her remaining Morlocks.
Later, Wolverine and Psylocke are inspecting what
parts of Cerebro can be salvaged when Wolverine pops his claws right next to
Psylocke’s face! She blasts him back and asks what’s going on and he admits he
was trying to test her, to see how shaken up she was from her fight with
Sabretooth. He needs to know her skills as well as her character in order to
safely and accurately judge her as a teammate in the future. Just then, they
get a call from Lila telling them what’s been going on with Dazzler and they head
to check it out. In Dallas, they find Dazzler performing at a grungy club, and
Psylocke notes that the thoughts from all of the people around are shockingly
violent, as if Dazzler’s show is directly influencing their negative emotions!
Dazzler spots the X-Men in the crowd and attacks them,
blinding and stunning all except for Rogue. Rogue rips up the ground under
Dazzler’s feet, allowing her to be grabbed by Storm. However, Malice then
begins to hop between the various X-Men, hopping into Wolverine to attack the
others. Dazzler blasts him back and Storm knocks out Dazzler, unsure who to
trust at the moment. Meanwhile, the police arrive outside to cordon off the
building, having been alerted of the situation. Malice then possesses Rogue and
flies outside to attack the police! Psylocke figures out what’s going on,
having picked up Malice’s thoughts and realizes how she’s able to hop between
possessing them. She reasons that Rogue’s mind is too difficult to probe so
they need to get Malice to possess someone else who will be easier for Psylocke
to eject her from. Storm volunteers to be the bait, with Wolverine on standby
to deal with things more lethally if things go wrong.
Outside, “Rogue” has completely trashed the police,
and loudly attributes her rampage to the X-Men! The other X-Men confront her
and Dazzler is able to stun her, forcing Malice out and into Storm. However,
Malice finds possessing Storm isn’t so easy and Ororo’s force of will is able
to cast her out after an intense struggle! Later, the X-Men’s reputation has
taken another hit due to Malice’s actions and the X-Men offer Dazzler to join
them, since they’re sure the Marauders will try to get to her again. With
things seemingly settled, Wolverine suddenly attacks Storm and is about to kill
her, when the others stop him! Wolverine snaps out of it, shocked that his
senses had told him Storm was still under Malice’s possession. Psylocke
confirms neither of them are possessed but Dazzler wonders who can vouch for
her? The X-Men all wonder how much they can really trust each other now while
Malice, possessing the police captain from earlier, looks on, knowing that
these seeds of contention mean she’s truly won!
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