Blindside

• Writer - Chris Claremont
• Penciler - Salvador Larroca
• Colorist - Liquid!
• Lettering - Tom Orzechowski
• Ass't Editor - Frank Dunkerley
• Editor - Matt Hicks
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

Summary

  Cortes and Sandoval debate fighting the X-Men, who entered the country legally and committed no crime.

  Rogue washes up and remembers pounding the Rocky Mountains till Ororo's lightning convinced her to join her team.

  The team drops into water; Hank and Lucas have rebreathers, and Ororo electrifies the water to make oxygen for Betsy and Neal. Men attack on aquasleds, but Betsy and Lucas quickly appropriate them. They find a door, and Betsy opens it with her psi-katana. Drainage ensues: everyone is damp; Betsy and Hank are separated from the others. Ororo senses a breeze and realizes it's an ambush; this time weapons are set to kill. She uses fog, electricity, and a gun to stop the soldiers.

  Rogue and Sage scan the city by air and by transmission. They zero in on Los Torres de Serranos, and Rogue bursts in. The place is already a wreck, and many are dead. She realizes someone else is at work: Vargas attacks and defeats her. Betsy attacks his partners while he hurts Hank bad. He claims to be the next step of human evolution: homo sapiens superior. Hank, broken, watches as Besty duels Vargas and is stabbed.