Villain: Magneto

Guest Appearance: Beast

Origin: Storm

Letters Page: Page One

A TV journalist spreads the news: an unchallenged Magneto has cut a swath through the Royal Australian Areospace Research Facility, raiding the complex of sophisticated weaponry. The reporter laments that the Fantastic Four and the Champions have disbanded, while the Avengers are under house arrest, while the X-Men, who have beaten Magneto before, seem to have disappeared from the scene.

Charles Xavier is on vacation with Lilandra and senses something is wrong. He has lost telepathic rapport with the team, and can only wonder what trouble they may be in.

Magneto’s telepathic robot comes to feed the captive X-Men and brush the Beast’s hair. Magneto seems to have encoded the robot nanny with a patronizing streak to her. Their physical abilities reduced to infant control, the X-Men can’t fight back or even make a sound; they can only despair in their mentally alert minds the situation they are in. When the robot leaves, Storm uses all her meditative strength to drop her tiara into her lap. She pulls out a lock pick with her tongue and spends painstaking hours trying to unlock her manacles.

Storm recalls her childhood as she works. After her parents were killed, she fell under the tutelage of Egyptian master thief Achmed El-Gibar. He taught her how to open any lock under any conditions, even abandoning her bound in a closet as a proving ground for her abilities. That training has paid off as she strains to free herself and her teammates. Unfortunately, despite her formidable attempts, the lock pick drops from her mouth and lands on the floor. Instantly, the robot nanny returns and replaces the tiara on her head. When it leaves, Ororo weeps, sure she has finally let herself and her teammates down.

Later, Magneto is on Asteroid M when a signal alerts him to a malfunction in his Antarctic base. He flies to earth under his own power and enters through the volcano. He finds the base in pitch blackness and the robot nanny damaged. Suddenly he is attacked from both sides. Now the X-men are fighting as a team. Phoenix telepathically links them all and Storm gradually draws the humidity out of the room. Banshee hits him and this time Wolverine draws blood from Magneto’s back. Phoenix bombards him and Colossus, breaking rank, goes toe to toe with the villain. Beast tosses Nightcrawler at Magneto and he snatches Magnus’s helmet. Colossus pounds Magneto in the face. They seem to have Magneto on the defensive.

But suddenly, lava begins to seep through the ceiling. The fight has destroyed the main console and now nothing can keep the volcano out of the complex. Magneto saves himself, protecting himself in a shield of magnetic force, leaving the X-Men behind to dodge the flowing lava. Jean and Beast are separated from the rest of the team as the roof caves in. They break through to the wintry surface and Jean falls unconscious. Beast picks her up and begins walking away from the volcano but soon collapses into a snow bank.

- -synopsis by Jonathan Clarke, aka doesitmatter, and Gormuu

- - panel scans provided by Jonathan Clarke, aka doesitmatter