Uncanny X-Men, The (1981 series) #248

Donald Pierce and his new Reavers blast away a robot duplicate of Wolverine, as they plan to do the same to the real one, and the rest of the X-Men! Meanwhile, in Australia, Longshot experiences a very strange dream. He begins dancing with Dazzler, who is quickly replaced by Rogue, and then Ricochet Rita in quick succession. Rita then turns into Spiral and attacks him by ripping out his spine! However, this causes Longshot to start to turn into Mojo and he impales Spiral, as she reverts to Rita, then Rogue, then Dazzler again, as they tell him that he always kills the ones he loves! Elsewhere in the dream, Storm suddenly gains awareness, her spirit having been pulled into the dream by Gateway. She encounters a ghostly version of Longshot, desperately looking for body parts to fit onto him. It’s representative of Longshot’s desire to find himself, given he has no memories of before he joined the X-Men. Longshot feels he needs to find more of himself in order to be whole, and elects to leave the X-Men in order to attain that goal, embracing Storm in an emotional farewell.

Elsewhere, the robotic Nanny and Orphan-Maker view hologram projections of the X-Men, and Nanny aims to save them in her own unique way! They land their ship near the X-Men’s Australian base, and she begins to enact her plan. She first locates Psylocke swimming in one of the caverns and ensnares her, presenting an illusion that she is a caring Nanny that the now child-like Psylocke needs! At the same time, Havok and Dazzler happen upon Nanny’s ship while jogging and elect to look inside, much to Dazzler’s reluctance. Her worries are proven justified when the two are ambushed and taken out by the childlike Orphan-Maker. Colossus is the next to be attacked, with Psylocke, Havok, and Dazzler now completely under Nanny’s spell and wearing mechanized power suits! They blast him into the air, where he’s caught by Storm. The two then get assaulted psychically by Psylocke. While Storm is able to break free, Colossus becomes enthralled as well and grabs Storm by the neck, forcing her to blast him away with a lightning bolt!

Inside one of the buildings, Jubilee decides to use the commotion as an opportunity to come out of hiding and raid the pantry. She’s found by Nanny, who tries to grab her, forcing Jubilee to evade before she fires back with her fireworks! Nanny cries out to Orphan-Maker, who runs inside to find Nanny on her back and unable to right herself. Storm uses the distraction to send Colossus careening down until he slams hard into Orphan-Maker and Nanny, leaving her particularly stunned and dizzy. Storm then contends with her armored teammates and manages to send them all slamming into each other. Nanny then calls to Orphan-Maker and tells him to get them to the ship so they can make a strategic retreat! They board their ship and Storm follows after them, getting gabbed by a metal tentacle in the process. Down on the ground, Colossus frees the others from their armored suits, hoping that will end Nanny’s control over them. However, enough of the conditioning remains that all Havok sees is an X-Man in trouble, causing him to send out a huge blast that shoots down the ship, and Storm along with it! The ship crash-lands in a huge explosion, and the X-Men run to inspect the site, finding Storm seemingly dead in the wreckage! To be continued!