X-Patrol (ES) Vol 5 73

Following their convictions, the former World War II super-heroes Crimson Commando and Stonewall have been drafted into the government controlled Freedom Force, much to the chagrin of Mystique who is still weary of Valerie Cooper's selection following the troubles the team had with the new Spider-Woman. Mystique warns the two veteran heroes not to step out of line as she will kill them if they ruin her chances at a government pardon. Pyro and Blob are smug about the new recruits, and when Blob tries to put his might up against Stonewall, he ends up toppling himself over. The introductions are suddenly interrupted when Spiral detects a coming intruder and teleports out of the room. This intruder turns out to be the Commando and Stonewall's ally Super Sabre, having survived their encounter with Storm^[1] he has come looking to either rescue or join his comrades. He slips past Avalanche who is doing yard work outside, but is easily tripped up by the teleporting Spiral who threatens to kill him until Commando confirms who he is. When Mystique tries to refuse him membership in the Freedom Force, they are all alerted to the sound of Destiny screaming. Rushing back inside, Mystique is told by Destiny that while checking on her step-daughter Rogue's future she sees nothing but death for her and the X-Men.

While in the Rocky Mountains, Storm continues her vision quest with Naze, and the two have stopped to go fishing. However, after Storm catches a fish, Naze suddenly passes out. Taking him back to the line shack they found in their travels she learns that he is still weak from the Eye Killer's poison and that despite his efforts to use his magic to fight them out of his system, he fears that Forge might be affecting his magical abilities. He tells Storm that from here on out, she must travel alone.

In New York City, a reporter named Mr. B listens to the opinions of some regular laborers opinions on mutants. One man, who stresses that he isn't racist because he has African-American friends says mutants are different because they don't look human or have powers that might put a hard working man out of work. He expresses the rage he would feel if he ever knew of his children associating with mutants, or worse -- having a child that is a mutant -- which he tells the reporter he would unquestionably kill the child.

While back in San Francisco, Rogue is returning to Alcatraz -- the X-Men's temporary headquarters on the west coast following an unsuccessful run to find a sign of the Marauders. She arrives just as Dazzler and Longshot are in a training session in which Dazzler narrowly avoids getting fatally hit by one of Longshot's daggers. Logan warns her about showing off and make up her mind if she's an X-Man or a singer because it could mean life or death to her, telling her to always be ready. With that, Logan springs and attack, but Rogue easily subdues him, he manages to reverse the tables when she lets her guard down and she wisely calls uncle. When Rogue expresses her desire to tackle the Marauders again, she wonders where Alex and Madelyne are. Madylne is standing on one of the cliff sides that rings Alcatraz and thinks about where her life has gone. She went from an idealistic wedding with her husband Scott Summers^[2] to having a child^[3]. Then things went downhill, starting with Scott walking out on her^[4]. Then she was attacked by the Marauders who took her child and left her for dead^[5] until she was rescued by the X-Men^[6]. Left with nothing, not even her wedding ring, she begins to contemplate committing suicide. Down below, Alex is jogging thinking about if he and Lorna Dane will ever be reunited to live happily ever after again. Seeing Madelyne standing over the cliff edge above, he rushes to stop her.

In the Rockies, Storm has put Naze in his bed and prepared a medicine for him to counteract the poison. He tells her to drink it as well just in case the poison effects her later on. Suddenly the hut they are in is ripped open and she is attacked by a demonic bear, although the creature manages to slash her badly, she gets away when she falls out of the hut. She is shocked to find that despite the fact it's the middle of summer, there is a full blown blizzard going on outside. Breaking through a frozen lake, she struggles to get out when she is attacked by a demonic snake. Stabbing the creature in the eye she pulls herself out of the water and has to climb up a steep slope. When the wounded snake recovers and comes after her it is suddenly felled by an explosion. Looking over her shoulder, Storm is surprised to see that the Rockies have given way to the jungles of Vietnam where she sees that Forge has summoned demons to slay a number of the Viet Cong army. Realizing that this must be what weakened the barriers to allow the Adversary access to Earth, Storm confronts Forge and asks him what he is doing. He tells her that he is remaking the world and reaches out to her. As he does, his mechanical hand transforms into a claw which starts transforming Storm upon a touch. As he pushes her close for a kiss, Storm does not hesitate to pull out her knife and fatally stab him.

With Forge seemingly dead the battle ground disappears and Storm realizes she was in the hut the whole time and her ordeal was nothing more than a vision. Explaining to Naze what happened, she confides in the old man that although she truly does love Forge, she must destroy him. In saying this, she doesn't see the devilish grin that crosses Naze's face or the evil glint in his eyes, while outside the freak snowstorm continues to rage.

Back in Alcatraz, Alex manages to convince Madelyne not to jump, if not for herself but for the sake of her son Nathan whom is still out there somewhere. Alex tells her of the struggle he had to deal when learning Lorna was a member of the Marauders, but also having to deal with her taunting him to attack. Telling her the X-Men are her family he tells her that no matter what they will win. This convinces her to walk away from the edge and return back to base with him. When she asks him if he's sure they'll win, Alex best his life on it, and Madelyne decides to match him on that promise.

Fourteen-year-old Angelica Jones is adjusting to her life as a student at the Massachusetts Academy. She's been assigned a personal bodyguard, Randall, a Hellfire Club henchman that has misgivings about how his boss does business but has to watch what he thinks around her as she's a telepath. Angelica particularly enjoys her time at the Academy's stables, where she's befriended a horse named Butter Rum. Frost has convinced Angelica to always wear a bracelet that she doesn't know is actually a "hallucinator" designed to make her see what Frost wants her to see. When Angelica is brought to the Academy's equivalent of the Danger Room for tests of her abilities, she's made to see images of the X-Men in the form of threats that she has to confront. Even though she currently refuses to hurt anyone with her powers, one particular Wolverine robot is rigged to explode in front of her so she thinks she caused it. Frost continues to train Angelica, developing her powers, as well as gaslighting her, using the hallucinator to give her nightmares about the X-Men, aiming to groom her into a perfect assassin for the Hellfire Club. One night, a school dance is arranged at the Academy that Frost invites the New Mutants to attend. Despite their distrust of the White Queen, the X-Men allows it and the night starts off well. Angelica and Sam Guthrie hit it off and she even experiences her first kiss with him. Unfortunately, that's when the White Queen strikes, sending a telepathic message to make her worry that she's endangering the boy's life, and when she runs to the stables, they're rigged to catch fire and Butter Rum dies thanks to Emma telepathically stopping his heart. Angelica is traumatized, thinking her powers and her lack of control over them are responsible.