X-Patrol (ES) Vol 5 68

This story is continued from last issue...

In the Rio Diablo mountains in New Mexico, Alex Summers and his lover Lorna Dane are heading back to their home with groceries before the first big storm of the winter. Along the way they are forced off the road by a VW van and tumble down the side of a cliff. Before they can get free, a tumbling rock threatens their lives forcing Alex to use his plasma powers to blast it to dust. Recovering from the crash and picking up their supplies, Lorna uses her magnetic powers to pull up their jeep so they can make it back to town to resupply and see the doctor, and drive off.

While in Scotland, Dazzler awakens to find herself buried alive after her battle with the Juggernaut. Recalling how she pushed her powers to the limit causing herself to pass out, she realizes the Juggernaut must have thought she was dead and buried her. Picking up faint sounds from outside, she absorbs the sound energy to increase her strength and is contacted by Psylocke who is searching for her telepathically. Dazzler uses the last of her light power to make a signal flare to bring her comrades to her and dig her out. Dug out by Psylocke, Rogue and Longshot she explains what happened. When Alison begins being hard on herself for failing at stopping the Juggernaut and saying she isn't cracked out to be a hero, Rogue finds it a crock telling Dazzler that when they fought in the past she was more than a match. The group agrees to work as a team going forward and soon hear over the radio that the Juggernaut is on a rampage through the town of Edinburgh.

Scanning the town with her psi-powers, Psylocke gives Rogue an idea of Juggernaut's location and she goes ahead of the others and lays into him first. She strikes him as hard as she can, but finds that it has no effect and the Juggernaut easily knocks her miles away. Psylocke, having caught up tries to ram a vehicle into him, but fails to stop him. When he grabs for her, Betsy is able to stun him with a psi-blast even that is so strong that Cain feels it through his psi-shielded helmet. Before he can strike Betsy for this attack, Longshot strikes his helmet with a number of his daggers. When the Juggernaut attempts to strike Longshot, he manages to evade all the blows until the Juggernaut gets fed up and drops a building on him and leaves. Worried about Longshot's fate, the three female X-Men begin to dig him out and find that his luck powers kicked in and prevented him from any serious harm.

Rogue catches up to the Juggernaut, kissing him to absorb some of his powers, and while he is weakened pulls him up into the air and rips off his helmet. She then tosses him onto some nearby railroad tracks and then flies down to him pummeling him so hard they create a crater in the ground. When Longshot points out that a train is coming, Rogue grabs him and goes to stop the train, leaving Dazzler and Psylocke to deal with Juggernaut, who has now regains his full strength. Rogue tosses Longshot inside the train hoping his luck powers will prevent anyone from getting hurt and then tries to stop it from driving over the ruined track.

While down in the crater, Dazzler uses her light powers to blast off the skull-cap that protects the Juggernaut from psi-attacks leaving him easy prey for Psylocke who fells him in one psi-blast. As the Juggernaut is felled, the two X-Men look up to find that Rogue has succeeded in stopping the speeding train in the nick of time. With the Juggernaut defeated, he is handed over to the authorities while the X-Men repair the damage to the train tracks. In order to protect their identities Dazzler and Psylocke insure that nobody remembers their faces and all photographs and videos are scrambled. They soon learn that while they were battling the Juggernaut, his partner Black Tom managed to loot the Bank of Scotland. Realizing the Juggernaut was a ruse to keep the authorities busy Rogue curses themselves for falling for such an amateur trick. Psylocke however tells her teammates that they should learn from this victory as the succeeded in working as a team.

While back in New Mexico, Alex recalls that some campers that stopped by their home the previous week were driving a VW van like the one that almost ran them off the road. Deciding to check out their camp, they arrive and see that all the tents had been torn apart. Also seeing that something crashed nearby recently, the uncover it with blasts of their mutant powers. What the find area bunch of slaughtered campers as well as one of the Brood's Starsark crafts. Alex, remembering what he learned about the Brood from being at Xavier's school realizes the threat they pose, especially if one of them was a Brood Queen, telling Lorna if that is the case, the Earth is doomed.

This story is continued next issue...

Thirteen-year-old Angelica Jones is attending her new high school and experiencing normal teenage problems until the uncontrolled manifestation of her mutant powers to generate microwaves causes strange mishaps that alienate her from her friends. Her grandmother had encouraged her, suggesting that the "M" mark on her palm meant she possessed exceptional talents, but when she passes away Angelica is left with only her father, who is terrified of her blossoming powers. Both Professor Xavier's Cerebro and the White Queen's Multivac pick up on the appearance of this new mutant, and it's Emma Frost that reaches the Jones household first, offering Angelica a place to learn how to control her powers among others like her at the Massachusetts Academy.