Story continued from X-Factor #37.
Picking right up from X-Factor #37, Wolverine grabs
Jean Grey and kisses her to confirm that she’s real, as X-Men and X-Factor
unite for the first time! Jean breaks out of her stunned state and blasts Logan
away. She can tell that something is wrong with the X-Men, and wonders if
perhaps they even are the real X-Men! She tells Iceman and Beast to grab
the Goblin Queen, their true enemy, but Havok blasts them before they can. As
Wolverine taunts Cyclops about the kiss, still affected by the Inferno spell
making the X-Men more demonic, Archangel sticks up for him, causing Wolverine
to attack Archangel, beginning a heated battle between the two teams! Archangel
sends a flurry of paralytic wing spikes at Wolverine, before he’s tackled by
Rogue. She tries to absorb him, but ends up feeling a bit of Apocalypse in
there as well. This lets Archangel resist her effect, allowing Cyclops to blast
her! Iceman decides to try and sort things out by encasing everyone in ice, but
Havok’s blast melts it, causing the entire area to become flooded! Longshot
ends up surprising Dazzler in the water, and the two end up making out while
everyone else fights it out.
Cyclops tries to rescue Madelyne from the water, and
she accuses him of not being there when she really needed him. Havok runs up to
defend Madelyne at the same time that N’Astirh arrives once more, batting the
two Summers brothers away. N’Astirh sends Madelyne’s demon pets after Jean, who
refuses to fight back against her transformed parents. N’Astirh creates a
demonic carriage for Madelyne, as she gives Cyclops a choice: either save Jean,
or her! Cyclops whispers an apology and ultimately chooses to save Jean, as
N’Astirh and his carriage whisk Madelyne away, prompting Havok to grab onto the
back and get pulled right along with it! Now angrier than ever, Jean expresses
her thoughts that their opponents might not be the real X-Men and they run off
to help their teammates as the two teams continue to fight it out. N’Astirh’s
carriage arrives at the completely transformed Empire State Building, where
Madelyne, now once again the Goblin Queen, steps out. She transforms Havok into
the Goblin Prince and the two enter the demonic building, with Colossus just
too late to stop them. With no other options, he begins to climb up the outside
of the building.
Back in Central Park, the two teams continue their
battle, with neither side gaining much advantage. Storm watches the battle rage
on from high above everyone else, while thinking how she expected different
from her reunion with Jean. At the summit of the Empire State Building,
N’Astirh reinforces the sensitivity of the timing needed to complete their
spell to create a bridge between earth and limbo. The Goblin Queen snaps her
fingers and creates the necessary altar. As Madelyne prepares to sacrifice Nathan,
he mentally calls out to Jean. This enrages Madelyne, feeling that Jean is
always taking what is rightfully hers. With some prodding from N’Astirh,
Madelyne agrees to complete his spell for him, but first, she wants Jean Grey’s
heart! Not far away, Storm generates a wind that brings Jean up to her level in
the sky, and though Storm is still altered, the two express how much they’ve
missed each other, in a touching reunion.
N’Astirh swoops down to grab Jean, and the two find
their attacks ineffective. After Archangel accidentally hits Storm and Jean
with his paralytic spikes, the two are caught by Rogue who then flies up to
tangle with N’Astirh herself! Having fought Magus before, another
techno-organic being, Rogue reveals that she’s immune to the virus and that the
longer she holds on to N’Astirh, the weaker he’ll get! Meanwhile, Colossus
finally reaches the top of the Empire State Building, but Havok quickly blasts
him off. Iceman pulls a neat move by generating an ice slide that catches
Colossus and maneuvers him back around into slamming into N’Astirh! Weakened by
Colossus’s metal form, N’Astirh teleports away while the X-Men and X-Factor
finally decide to stop fighting and unite against their common enemy. Since
Rogue and Colossus faced a techno-organic being before, Storm has Psylocke and
Jean use their telepathic abilities in tandem to fill everyone else in on
exactly what they’re dealing with, giving Beast an idea!
At the tower, the two teams execute their plan
together. The combined efforts of Cyclops and Storm send Colossus hurtling up
to the top of the tower, while Archangel throws Wolverine after him. Colossus
and Wolverine reach the top, their metal proving harmful to N’Astirh. With
N’Astirh stunned, Iceman freezes over the entire Empire State Building!
N’Astirh reveals that this has only made him stronger, until Storm begins to
add a band of heat around the building as well. When the combined efforts of
Cyclops, Dazzler, and Colossus shatter the ice, the rapid temperature change
causes N’Astirh to begin to overload. Storm then finishes the job, pumping the
already overloaded N’Astirh with as much lightning as she can until he finally
explodes! Once the smoke clears, the two teams find no trace of N’Astirh yet
note that the Inferno spell has not ended. While Cyclops chastises Storm for
killing N’Astirh, a lasso of energy snags Jean by the neck and pulls her away.
The X-Men and X-Factor then come face to face once more with the loose end
they’d forgotten about, the Goblin Queen with Havok in tow, who states that now
it’s their turn! To be continued!
Story continued in X-Factor #38.
Give that special marvelite a timely gift