Stranded far from the Earth, the X-Men and Starjammers
work to repair the Starjammers’ warp drive and ship to hopefully make it back
before the Earth is destroyed! Colossus rips up hunks of the hull, that
Wolverine then cuts off, to be recycled later. An explosion from one of the
pieces sends Wolverine flying away from the ship and Hepzibah gets him back to
the ship, while unseen by everyone, Colossus collapses once again from his
wounds. Cyclops ricochets his beam to nudge Hepzibah back to the ship as well,
where they finally notice the collapsed Colossus. He is rushed to the medical
bay, where Sikorsky says he’ll have to operate once more and requests Storm’s
assistance. Meanwhile, in the main area, Lilandra tries to contact Chancellor
Araki but her communications get cut off. We see that Araki has been killed by
the traitorous Samedar, in order to move ahead with the destruction of the
Earth! Still unable to take off, Professor X reaches out telepathically across
the solar system to notify Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde of the situation, but
he senses something strange within himself that causes him to pass out!
Elsewhere, on the Brood’s ship, the Brood are
expressing their displeasure with Deathbird and the way her plans have gone
awry. They propose a truce, and Deathbird promises to retrieve the X-Men for
the Brood’s use. Back on the Shi’ar ship, Nightcrawler rigs a portable version
of the costumer that Kitty has been using, when suddenly they hear the alarm
sound for battle stations, knowing that means the Earth’s imminent destruction!
Kitty makes herself a space suit and phases through the hull of the ship and back
in, outside the cell. She sees guards about to enter, planning to kill them and
phases through their armor, shorting it out, allowing Nightcrawler to rapidly
teleport and take them all out in seconds! Nightcrawler gives Kitty the
portable costumer and they make their way to communications where they find
Chancellor Araki dead. They decide the only way to prevail is to convince the
few of the Imperial Guard there that Lilandra is safe.
Out on the bridge, Lord Admiral Samedar gives the
orders to destroy the Earth, despite some reluctance from the other crew.
Suddenly, Nightcrawler rapidly teleports, creating the illusion of multiple
explosions and filling the bridge with smoke! Kitty appears, using the costumer
to make herself look like Dark Phoenix and warns the Shi’ar to attack the Earth
at their own risk! She phases through the floor under veil of another teleport
“explosion”, leaving the Shi’ar confused and shocked! While everyone is distracted
by the theatrics, Nightcrawler grabs Oracle, the Imperial Guards’ telepath and
teleports away with her. Kurt and Kitty convince her to read their minds,
proving that Lilandra is alive, and they confer with Gladiator and a couple of
the other Imperial Guard on how to proceed.
Just then, a hologram of Samedar appears, revealing
that the rest of the Imperial Guard remains loyal to him! While the rest of
them are forced to fight the rogue Imperial Guard, Nightcrawler tells Kitty to
get to the computers and short them out, so the Shi’ar will be unable to enact
their plan. Kitty phases down through the ship and makes her way to the
computers while Nightcrawler and the others miraculously start to turn the
tides on their foes. Samedar sets off a Brood weapon he prepared, stunning Nightcrawler
and the rest, while Kitty gets to work shorting out the computers. She is then
also stunned by a surprise weapon and all seems lost, with our heroes detained.
Samedar gives the order to fire and the Shi’ar’s anti-matter beam streaks
toward the Earth! Just then, right in the nick of time, the Starjammer
reappears from warp drive to block the beam! Lilandra reveals herself safe and
orders the arrest of the traitorous Samedar. Though the day is saved and Earth
lives on, Storm and the freshly healed Colossus exit the medical bay to reveal
that Professor Xavier is now in a coma, one he may never wake up from!