Search and Rescure

• Writer - Chris Claremont
• Penciler - Leinil Francis Yu
• Script - Tom Derenick
• Script - Anthony Williams
• Writer - Mark Morales
• Inker - Rick Ketcham
• Inker - Norm Rapmund
• Colorist - Liquid!
• Colorist - Hi-Fi Design
• Lettering - Richard Starkings
• Lettering - Comicraft
• Editor - Mark Powers
• Editor in Chief - Bob Harras

Search and Rescue

Summary

  The Neo have holed up in a church in New York (iss. 102). They had lived secretly alongside humans, expecting them to destroy themselves, but then they were attacked, and Domina and Jaeger gathered the survivors. Cecelia killed Jaeger (iss. 100), so Domina practices killing simulcrums of X-Men.

  Junction interrupts: a masked person has been destroying the Neo's cyborgs. Cecelia observes, having keep hidden with the help of vials of Rave. Domina sends Rax to search the building for her and Charlotte. Rax and Delgado, who has attached himself to Jones, plot against her.

  The X-Men reconnoiter, and Kurt senses Junction's teleportation, so he thinks he can get through Barbican's barrier as well. He and Logan convince Rogue to let them go for it. Simultanously, the Neo port out and attack Rogue. Rax gives her a good beating, then proposes an alliance, instead. Rogue suspects a trap but needs to get her people out.

  Delgado-Jones have been attacking the Neo, and Kurt and Logan get in the way when it attacks Elysia. Cecelia intervenes, berates Logan for not rescuing her sooner, and gets Kurt to port them away.

  Cooper and SHIELD's new head, Carter, listen to Kelly's anti-mutant presidential campaign speech, then warn him that Mystique is after him. He is fatalistic, since there is no defence against a shape-shifter, and he's willing to die for his beliefs.

  Cecelia sees vials of Rave injecting themselves into her. Logan puts his claws to Elysia to make her stop the hallucinations. They explain to her that the High Evolutionary, not the X-Men, caused the deaths of her family (UXM 379), but she says Domina will never believe them.

  Mystique has assembled a new Brotherhood, including Toad, who now has a prehensile tongue with psycho-active venom.

  Rogue pretends to be a census-taker, and the Neo open the door (!). Betsy throws Piotr to Antaeus, who pummels him. He kisses Rogue to give her his power, and she confronts Domina. Rax and Delgado-Jones make their move, tossing Kurt aside and breaking through Betsy's TK to get to Domina. Logan slices Jones from Delgado, and Elysia defends him against Domina. Kurt tries to convince her to end her war on humanity, when only one was to blame. Rogue insists hope is better than despair, and Domina lets the X-Men go, but keeps the church as the Neo's fortress.