X-Men #96

Publisher
Marvel
Year
2000
Month
1
LastChanged
2/3/2024 7:54:28 AM
The Gathering

Summary

  Note: this occurs after UXM 376 and is part of the Apocalypse: The Twelve storyline.

  Magneto dreams of struggle, then Xavier shows up in psionic form, apologizes for the intrusion, but insists they talk. Magneto calls Cortez, orders him to review security, gets a hypercharge, then strikes him for insolence.

  Scott and Ororo discuss the situation. Scott isn't willing to take Fiz at face value, since Skrull society is based on guile.

  Jean uses Cerebro to find the rest of the Twelve. She locks onto Bobby, who is under attack, racing across Long Island Sound toward the mansion. Deathbird attacks, but he draws back from killing her and gets captured. Jean loses contact.

  Xavier and Magneto confer on the raised ruins of the Leningrad (X-Men II:1) and continue the debate on human-mutant relations. Then Xavier mind-links and tells him about Apocalypse and the Twelve. Magneto wonders if he could disrupt the plan simply by killing the other eleven, but it hasn't come to that yet.

  Jean is eavesdropping via Cerebro, and Hank says Apocalypse surely would have a backup plan. Jean sees a dimensional portal open and telepathically warns everyone. Moira gives Mikhail a clean bill of health, then calls Jean to the infirmary. Death has come for Mikhail. Piotr tries to stop him, but he knows all their weaknesses and zaps him, knocks Mikhail down, and bats away the gun Moira has aimed at his head. Scott blasts his portal control, but Ororo fails to stop him from getting away on foot. Scott realizes Apocalypse chose Logan because none of the X-Men will risk killing him.

  Sunfire tells his superiors about the threat of Apocalypse. They refuse to believe him, until Famine shows up. He devours all of Sunfire's blast, till he collapses.

  Kitty catches up with Logan, who swings his sword through her. She tries to get him to fight Apocalypse's control, but he flicks a switch on the sword and fries her. Rogue is up next and gets flattened. Then Fiz. Then Kurt, who is able to disarm him. But the X-Men hold back, and he slices a pillar with his sword and brings down the ceiling, trying to kill them all. Fiz gets big and props the ceiling back up, but Logan is gone through the wall.

  Jean has located four of the Twelve. Scott sends Warren, Kurt, Kitty, and Jubilee after Logan. The rest, with Fiz, go to Egypt.

  The Monolith blames the Skrulls for tipping their hand by attacking Lorna. Apocalypse decides he doesn't need to capture the rest of the Twelve, because they're coming to him.