The man behind the Marauders, Mr. Sinister, berates
the team for failing him time and again! He admonishes their failure to
eliminate Madelyne Pryor and their continued losses to the X-Men. Sabretooth
doesn’t take kindly to the treatment and attacks Sinister, who is able to
effortlessly restrain him by the neck! Sinister tells the Marauders that
Madelyne is now awake and asking questions and tasks them with finishing the
job of killing her! Meanwhile, now back at Xavier’s School, Dazzler
participates in a Danger Room session against a simulacrum of Rogue. Dazzler
uses all her power to blast “Rogue” back, before toppling some scaffolding on
her. The session suddenly ends due to the arrival of the real Rogue, none too
happy at Dazzler’s choice of opponent. Dazzler feels it’s only fitting, given
Rogue had tried to kill her in the past. Rogue wants to be able to bury the
hatchet but Dazzler can’t forgive her so easily. The two then get interrupted
by Psylocke who tells them that Wolverine has a mission.
In the grand Canyon, Naze reflects on his plans to use
Storm in order to eliminate Forge! He leads Storm to where Forge was last known
to be, all the while plotting to take her once he’s achieved his goal! The
X-Men arrive in San Franciso, Wolverine having heard from Madelyne Pryor about
everything that happened with Scott leaving her and the Marauders attacking
her. Psylocke telepathically scans the area around the hospital and discovers
the Marauders are already there! Rogue zooms down and decks Sabretooth right
out of the building before finding Scalphunter about to kill Madelyne. Scalphunter
blasts Rogue and is about to kill the struggling Madelyne when he’s taken out
by a pinpoint blast from Dazzler on a roof across the street! Vertigo appears
on the roof and attacks the others, causing Longshot to grab Psylocke and
Dazzler and dive off the roof, using a grappling hook to save them, landing in
a truck transporting sand!
Harpoon then hits Psylocke with one of his energy
spears, causing her to psychically spread her pain onto her teammates as well!
Inside, Wolverine and Havok feel the effects, when Scrambler grabs Havok,
causing his powers to go haywire! Havok’s energy arcs out uncontrollably,
destroying a large part of the building and taking out Wolverine! Before
Scrambler can get too far, Madelyne is about to shoot him when Arclight
generates several shockwaves to keep everyone off balance. Wolverine comes to
and tells Rogue to get Madelyne to safety while he checks on Havok. Rogue grabs
Madelyne and flies off, when they’re suddenly encased by an entire construction
site’s worth of girders coming to life, courtesy of the Malice-possessed
Polaris, who reveals herself as the Marauders’ new leader!
Just then, the truck carrying Dazzler, Longshot, and
Psylocke arrives at the site. They notice the entire building being ripped out
of the ground, and Dazzler uses Longshot’s grappling hook to grab ahold of the
tower before it can get too far. Dazzler gets pulled along with the tower as it
ends up being driven right into the ocean by Polaris, in an attempt to drown
Rogue and Madelyne! Dazzler is able to keep her hold and her wits and cuts
Madelyne free of the girders. As Madelyne swims to the surface, Dazzler
realizes she may not have enough energy left to save Rogue as well. She tries
anyway, but ends up nearly passing out. However, she weakened the girders
enough for Rogue to break free and she gets the two of them to the surface.
With both having just mutually saved each other, Rogue and Dazzler bury their former
animosity just in time for Polaris to show up once again to finish the job! To
be continued!
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