X-Men #178

Publisher
Marvel
Year
2006
Month
1
LastChanged
8/19/2006 10:06:00 PM
House Arrest

The Transmogrification of Robert Drake
Summary

  Note: this is a Decimation issue.

  Alex is frantic, thinking Lorna's been killed; Scott tries to calm him down, but Alex just yells at him and backhands him, then starts blasting a Sentinel. The Sentinel blasts back, knocking him down, and Scott defends his brother. Emma repeats: the Sentinels are human; Scott, dodging a blast, says they're many things but not human.

  Briggs, piloting the Sentinel, asks permission to liquidate them; Lexington denies him. Briggs insists their orders are to contain the mutants unless except to protect themselves, and he feels in jeopardy. He asks why the mutants don't just stop fighting; Lexington asks what he would do.

  Lorna tells Val she doesn't want anyone to know she lost her powers; she hopes it's a temporary psychological thing and wonders why she's been affected, the daughter of Magneto.

  Scott checks on Alex and then directs Emma to search for Lorna. Bobby, meanwhile, is searching the woods on foot, avoiding a Project ONE soldier.

  Val stands in front of the Sentinels, ordering them to cease fire. Scott is surprised to see her; Rogue asks why she's brought robots to trash their home; Lorna appears, saying she's on their side.

  Akkaba, Egypt: an archaeologist thinks he's found evidence the ancients invented cricket, when the ground collapses beneath him. He sees a monstrous form in a chamber below.

  A Project ONE soldier detains Bobby and asks for his ID. He says it's not on him, and he lives here, but when he can't demonstrate he's a mutant, the soldier thinks he's a Sapien Leaguer. Bobby hits him and runs for it; the soldier opens fire.

  The X-Men hear it, but Logan and Hank return, saying it's probably the Sapien League. Scott notes they get a lot of trespassers here; Val says if she announced their arrival, the X-Men would have resisted and she insists they're here to protect them.

  Levitation disks emerge from the Sentinel's chests, bringing the soldiers to ground level; Lexington introduces himself as the leader of the Sentinel Squad. Scott doesn't shake his hand; he tells Val the new model Sentinels are an obvious improvement but wants them to leave; she says they're here to stay.

  The Leper Queen says the Institute is the X-Men's spiritual home, which is why they're attacking here to make a statement.

  Gazer (iss. 170), on board the NASA observation satellite, is told of the effects of radiation by Phantom Torso, a theoretically dead human torso brought there as an experiment. It notes Gazer lost his immunity from radiation and should get off the satellite before he dies; he calmly insists on staying till he contacts whatever's out there that may have the answer to everything. Looking through a telescope, he sees it, a large, green, bulbous thing against the stars.

  Briggs says they should just let the mutants rot; Slayton says he should be more sympathetic to an oppressed minority. Briggs, who's black, insists he's part of the non-mutant majority. Rogue doesn't want to be guarded by robots and will take her chances with the Sapien League; just then they open fire, launching mortars running out of the woods. Val asks if Scott wants help now.

  Bobby is held at gunpoint again, this time by the Sapien League. He quickly lies, saying he just works in the kitchens and doesn't like mutants. Then the Leper Queen shows up.

  Alex apologizes to Scott for being a hothead; Emma alerts Scott about Bobby. The Leper Queen is ready to execute Bobby, but Emma concentrates on various parts of the brain… the Leper Queen drops her gun, and her arm freezes. The X-Men rush there in time to find Bobby on his knees, turned back into Iceman and wondering what's happening.