In the depths of the old Morlock tunnels, Forge works
on a device while simultaneously thinking of his time in Vietnam. He’s
interrupted from his thoughts by Jean Grey, who’s still getting used to the
mass of tentacles that now exist where her arms used to. They’re a bit
surprised that there are still Morlocks around down here after the massacre,
and Forge reveals he has little floating spy cameras he developed keeping a
lookout. While Jean struggles with what could be her new reality, Forge notices
that one of his spy cameras has found something! It spies Masque, with a
captured Colossus and Callisto, now revealed to be the beautiful woman Colossus
has been obsessed with, a result of Masque’s handiwork. Masque is also
responsible for the changes made to Jean and Banshee, and the strange Morlocks
with the X-Men’s faces, all for his own amusement. Masque messes with Peter’s
face a bit and keeps Callisto sedated, declaring himself the ruler of the
Morlock tunnels! Noticing the resemblance between Peter and Colossus, though
not knowing that Peter is Colossus, Masque uses his power to make Peter
look like Colossus’ metal form in appearance only. He then lets Callisto and
Colossus go, in order to hunt them down later for sport! Having seen all of
this, Jean and Forge resolve to help them!
Meanwhile, in Washinton DC, Val Cooper arrives at a
loud, wild nightclub for a secret meeting with KGB operative Col. Alexei
Vazhin. Vazhin expresses his concern for all of the mutant and otherwise
superpowered individuals and factions making bids for power, and what that
means for ordinary people. He fears war with Genosha, or any of the other
mutant groups or supervillains, no matter who ends up winning, that homo
sapiens will ultimately lose! Back in the tunnels, Forge thinks back to a time
when he and his unit were boxed in, and the only thing keeping the enemy from
getting farther into the country and inflicting more damage, and how this
situation feels similar. He’s broken from his thoughts once more by Jean and
Banshee as Forge’s tracker finds Colossus and Callisto and the three race to
their aid.
Elsewhere in the tunnels, Colossus and Callisto
stumble their way through, with Callisto unable to accept her new appearance,
feeling that the longer she’s like this, the more she’ll forget who she was,
and this will become the new reality. The two are then attacked by the deformed
Morlocks, and Callisto ends up killing the one with Angel’s face. Masque has
the Morlock Bliss incapacitate Callisto once more and Masque ends up stabbing
Colossus, just as Jean, Forge, and Banshee arrive to help. Their ambush reminds
Forge of when his unit was ambushed in Vietnam, resulting in nearly all of
their deaths. Meanwhile, Colossus realizes that he feels no pain from the knife
and instinctively reverts to his actual metal form, barreling through the
Morlocks on his way to make sure Callisto is okay. Forge thinks about how last
time, he was alone, resulting in him using the forbidden spell that ultimately
freed the Adversary, but how now, he’s older and wiser.
Forge lets loose a little mechanical path-finder, to
lead everyone out while he covers their escape. He climbs a ladder after them,
only to find they’ve all been incapacitated by Masque and Bliss! Forge ends up
taking out Bliss and Colossus grabs Masque and slams him against the wall.
Masque tries to bargain for his life as the only one who can fix them, but Jean
threatens to kill him anyway. Masque has Bouncer teleport them all away as he
slumps to the ground, swearing that they’ll come crawling back. Later, at
Peter’s apartment, Jean reveals that she was bluffing as a way to get Masque
himself to get them out of there. With the cell samples he’d retrieved from
them, Forge was able to build something to return Jean and Banshee to normal,
though Colossus still doesn’t have his memories back, and Banshee wonders if
that’s really a bad thing. Finally, up on the roof, Forge says a symbolic
goodbye to his old unit, and that unlike with them, this time, he was able to
bring his people home!
Excelsioring your collection