Kitty Pryde gazes tearfully upon Colossus, body frozen
in agony after the Brotherhood’s attack last issue! Kitty mentally calls out to
Professor X to warn him of the Brotherhood’s attack, and Xavier promises to
alert the others. In the Danger Room, Wolverine and Storm engage in a training
session, when they’re suddenly alerted to the emergency and fly out to help.
Xavier and Storm agree to keep Rogue in the dark about what’s going on for now,
thinking that this likely has something to do with her, and it would be a bad
time to have her loyalties tested. Just then, Xavier receives a strong psionic
pain that he realizes is a scanning wave, though he’s unsure where it came from
or what it’s looking for.
Meanwhile, Kitty suddenly remembers an article she
read about a portable, high-intensity heat source developed by Reed Richards.
Thinking it could help Colossus, she heads off for the Baxter Building, phasing
into the back of a taxi and royally spooking the driver! She calls to find that
the Fantastic Four are currently out but decides that she can’t wait for their
return. Elsewhere, across town, Callisto and a couple other Morlocks find a
young woman in an alley, dead from an overdose. The Morlock Masque begins to
change with the woman’s appearance, all a part of their plan. Meanwhile, at
Lincoln Center, Nightcrawler and Amanda Sefton are enjoying some alone time,
when they’re suddenly attacked by a giant fire-bird! Nightcrawler teleports
them to the roof, right into the path of an attack from Avalanche, and Kurt
once again teleports the two of them to safety, receiving the Professor’s
warning a moment too late!
Blob then slams down and grabs Amanda, forcing Kurt to
surrender else Blob snap her neck. Fortunately, Storm and Wolverine arrive at
that moment to even the playing field, beginning an epic battle between the two
teams! Meanwhile, Kitty arrives at the Baxter Building and decides time is of
the essence, phasing right into the building, carefully making her way up so as
to not disrupt any of the electronics by accident. The X-Men and Brotherhood
continue their battle, with Destiny trying to warn her teammates of the X-Men’s
attacks, when Storm creates a monsoon that puts Pyro out of action. Back with
Kitty, she finds the module she’s been looking for and decides she needs an
alternate escape path, after the Baxter’s Building’s defenses were set on her.
She phases up to the roof with the plan of walking on air to an adjacent
building. However, at that moment she slips and seemingly falls right off the
roof!
Back at the battle, Nightcrawler teleports Avalanche
so that he hits Blob with his attack, allowing Wolverine to incapacitate him.
The Brotherhood surrender, but Blob taunts the X-Men, stating that this was
just a diversion, to draw them away from their real target! Back at the
mansion, Xavier finally recognizes the psionic interference being the same one
Mystique used against him in Washington. Mystique herself then approaches,
disguised as Rogue, and Xavier is able to divert her aim just enough to avoid getting
killed by her shot. The real Rogue then discovers the scene and says she can’t
let Mystique kill Xavier. She clarifies to Mystique that she’s here of her own
free will, and that Xavier can give her the shot at controlling her powers that
Mystique just can’t. Mystique then sends a hologram of herself to the X-Men,
bartering the freedom of the Brotherhood against Xavier’s life. The Brotherhood
go free, boasting that at least they took out Colossus. Just then, a police
radio alerts everyone to a situation just outside the Baxter Building, where we
see Kitty, apparently dead from the fall from the roof! To be continued!