New Mutants

(Team Profile #2)

Comics Marvel Universe

Power Level: Mid-level, Street-level

Game system: DC Heroes Role-Playing Game

Role: Organisation or team

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Profile

This is an article about the New Mutants as a team.

It is the third in a chronological series. So you’ll want to know how this chronological sequence goes. And, as if by mutant magic…

Sequencing

To avoid a demon-bear-sized text, this article is presented in episodes. These go :

The New Mutants – Year one, part #1.
The New Mutants – Year one, part #2.
The New Mutants – The rest of the 1980s.

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Organization

Full Name:
The New Mutants.

Purpose:
Young mutants in training to master their powers and some day fill the ranks of the X-Men.

Modus Operandi:
They are teenagers, residents at the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in Salem Center, NY. They split their time between classic academic studies and training sessions in the mansion’s Danger Room.
Though they are told, again and again, to stay away from trouble, they often disobey to follow their heart into helping people and manage for trouble to find them anyway. They are in a rebellious period of their life. With the overconfidence superpowers may bring to your average teenager, they often end up in situations way over their head.
Cable has a more active point of view, and builds an officer/soldiers relationship. He’s no longer overprotective. Cable takes an active part in The New Mutants operations.

Extent of operations:
Until the end of Inferno, Magik (Illyana Rasputin) can send them to any location on Earth. They often end up in Limbo. When Illyana’s disc fails, it can land them in alternate time-lines as well. Afterwards, they rely on Warlock’s transformations. His range is not really limited.
They are usually involved in adventures without asking for it, so their operations are usually limited to getting back safe or taking whatever side they think is the good one in the events they are thrown in.
When Cable takes charge, he takes them into action against mutants’ opponents or evil mutants: Freedom Force, MLF, Genosha, Morlocks.

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Bases of Operations:
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in Salem Center, X-Factor’s Ship, X-Men’s underground complex below Xavier’s Estate.

Major Funding:
Professor Xavier’s family fortune.

Known Enemies:

Loki.
Hellions.
Hellfire Club.
Donald Pierce.
Sentinels.
Magus (Warlock’s father).
S’Ym (Illyana’s rebellious demon lieutenant in Limbo).
N’astirh (Limbo’s demon behind Inferno).
Cameron Hodge and The Right.
Hela.
Freedom Force.
Marauders.
Genosha.

Known allies:

X-Men.
X-Factor.
Lila Cheney.
X-Terminators.
Cable.
The Fallen Angels.
Asgardian heroes.
Dr Strange.

Membership

Number of active members:
Up to 9 teenagers.

Number of reserve members:
Karma, after she left the team in search of her younger siblings. Magma after she left for Massachusetts and Nova Roma. Wolfsbane when she decided to stay in Genosha.

Organizational structure:
As students at the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, they are under the responsibility of its headmaster. When Professor Xavier left Earth with Lilandra, he transferred the responsibility to Magneto, then repentant.
They’re supposed to be the next generation of X-Men. Therefore, they train to be a mutant heroes group where Cannonball and Mirage share the field leadership.
Xavier’s institute is also a regular school. So, along their mutant training, the students follow a regular scholarly course. They study basic maths and physics, English literature, computer use… much like regular high-school pupils. They study more complicated subjects than their mundane counterparts. Magneto is even more demanding than Xavier in this area. Sometimes, he expects too much. Unlike Xavier, he’s not used to being obeyed simply out of respect. He’s much used to relying on fear and intimidation. This brings so much more stress when the students are due to write papers.
Later, Magneto bails out of the responsibility. Cable fills the void. He will stress on the combat training over the scholarly one. As Cable participates in The New Mutants’ missions, Sam can hardly be considered field leader anymore. Thus, Cable is their trainer, commanding officer and field leader.

Original Roster:

X-Terminators addition:
During the Inferno, The X-Terminators join The New Mutants. Rictor (Julio Esteban Richter), Rusty Collins, Skids (Sally Blevins) and Boom-Boom (Tabitha Smith) will permanently join. The younger ones will go to a private, more regular, school.

Later additions:

Cable.
Domino.
Feral.
Shatterstar.
Warpath (formerly Thunderbird II of The Hellions).

Membership requirements:
All members are young superhuman mutants (even Warlock whose non-aggressive nature is considered a mutation of his alien species)

Equipment:
X-Mansion’s facilities (Danger Room, Medical bay, academics facilities before the destruction of the mansion).
UNSTABLE MOLECULES COSTUME [BODY 05, Cold Immunity: 01, Misc. Adv: Insta-Change]

History

(See the The New Mutants – year one profile for the early history)

Secret Wars II and consequences

The Beyonder is back. In a quest to understand the meaning of his existence, he confronts all the heroes on Earth. In the process, he destroys The New Mutants. He kills them and erases all traces of their existence. Then, he recreates them.

They may be alive but they are deeply traumatized. Magneto, now in charge of Xavier’s school, can’t find any way to bring them back. Somehow, Warlock is not so affected. And Dani, with her new death related power, manages a higher point of view. She’s depressed, but not so traumatized. Emma Frost contacts Magneto. She felt the teenagers’ dismay and offers her telepathic skills to help. Empath, the Hellion, is stalking the school.

With a bit of emotional manipulation, he increases Magneto’s desperation to save his pupils. Magneto is so desperate he accepts Emma Frost’s offer. From the beginning, he was feeling way above his head in taking over Xavier’s school and dream. Empath’s nudge made Magneto give up on the task. Failure is not easy on him. All but Warlock and Dani are transferred to the Massachusetts Academy. They join ranks with The Hellions.

Merged Hellions/New Mutants roster

When Empath was stalking Xavier’s school, he was discovered by Tom and Sharon. He provokes a reciprocal unbridled sexual attraction between the former cop and the former nurse. They drop any other interest in life. When they shake off their sexual frenzy, they give Magneto the hint he needed to understand Empath’s mind games. He’s not pleased.

Frost anticipates Magneto’s retaliation. She calls Snow Valley’s police to warn them about his possible attack. The Master of Magnetism is still regarded as an international terrorist. Snow Valley’s police call the Avengers for interception.

The way Magneto restrains himself from attacking The Avengers, only defending, gives a hint to Captain America. When The New Mutants join Magneto, and when he strictly fights to protect them, the Avengers recognize he’s no longer the villain. Emma Frost plays ignorance of Empath’s interference.

She and Magneto work hard together and manage to restore The New Mutants’ spirit. They go back to the mansion. Though they escape her grasp, for now, the White Queen is satisfied. For them, she’s the one permitting their recovery. They owe her and that’s good.

They spend some time with their families. Sam introduces Lila Cheney, still his improbable girlfriend, to his mother and family. Dani learns her childhood friend was close to proposing to her before she left for Xavier’s.

Coming back from their homes, The New Mutants understand what Sharon and Tom went through. They decide to get even with Empath. Illyana traps him in Limbo and trusts S’Ym to scare the bejesus out of him. When eventually The Hellions show up to recollect Empath, Mirage appeals to Thunderbird’s Apache sense of honor to forbid Empath’s abuse of them in the future.

They meet Betsy and Brian Braddock and live the first direct confrontation of an X-Team with Mojo. For now, the X-Men only met Spiral, and Rachel was abducted to the Body Shop. Betsy will join the X-Men.

The Mutants Massacre

The Marauders start this story arc by slaughtering The Morlocks in their tunnels below Manhattan. After the assault, the X-Men bring the surviving Morlocks to the X-Mansion. There, The New Mutants are overwhelmed by the severity of the damages. At first, they try to help with the wounded.

But they are too much shocked (Mirage’s death vision keeping bursting anywhere she looks at) or not battle-hardened enough to keep thinking straight (Karma tried to calm the maimed but was unable to handle their pain). They are sent to support tasks like providing food or medical supplies.

Karma checks on her 2 siblings living in New York, but she can’t reach them by phone. Worried sick, Xi’an asks Illyana to use her stepping disc to go to them. When Karma inspects the apartment, the bomb rigged to the light switch explodes. Someone, The Marauders or not, knows the 2 children are associated with mutants.

Without news from Xi’an or Illyana, and against Magneto’s orders, The New Mutants go to the Morlocks’ tunnels. They find Illyana carrying an unconscious Xi’an. Very frighteningly, Magus, Warlock’s father, appears and greets them.

Warlock confronts Magus

Illyana makes an emergency exit to Limbo with everybody. Unfortunately, Magus is very powerful and manages to follow them there. Magik makes another emergency exit from Limbo to Earth.

Under the pressure, she botches it and they appear in Robert the Bruce’s Scotland. When they go again, it’s another fumble, and they reappear in the future. This time, the team is split in 2 groups, each to a different alternate future.

Amara, Shan, Roberto and Rahne are sent in a “Days of Future Past” like time-line. There, Sentinels rule and mutants are killed. The local Mirage and Cannonball are rebel leaders.

Sam, Dani, Doug and Warlock are in a dystopia where mutants rule. Roberto and Amara are the mutant rulers. There, humans are second zone citizens… Better than the previous time-line? Not really.

Illyana is trapped in Limbo, in the present time. Magus corrupts the demons with his techno transmode-virus before leaving in pursuit of Warlock. S’Ym takes advantage of the increased power provided by the Transmode Virus. He stages a coup to seize control over Limbo.

Illyana is forced to thrust her Soul Sword into the mountain top. Doing so, she imposes her will to the whole dimension. S’Ym and his rebels disappear and the landscape becomes nice and peaceful (instead of nightmarish). Illyana teleports away.

Weakened, Illyana fails her dimension travel, but not that much. She joins Prof. Xavier, who is roaming Shi’ar space with the Starjammers. With the help of Professor X’s psi stabilization, she manages to gather The New Mutants from their different time-lines. With the help of the Starjammers and The New Mutants, Warlock confronts Magus and wins.

The New Mutants update Charles about the situation on Earth: Magneto’s hard time with the school, X-Factor, the Morlocks’ massacre. He decides to get back. Illyana is in shock after her battle in Limbo. She doesn’t want to use her teleportation to go back to Earth. Xavier coerces her, through Karma’s possession, despite her and Mirage’s reluctance.

When it’s time to leave, the Starjammers are attacked. The ship is in no fighting condition. Only Xavier’s telepathy manages to anticipate the strikes and keep the ship dodging. He cannot leave lest his love and friends will die. Illyana brings The New Mutants home, but she’s very upset.

Illyana retreats to Limbo. Reverting to her Darkchylde persona, she resumes the fight with S’Ym and his techno-transformed demons horde. Once again she thrust her Soul Sword in the land and gets back to Earth. Each time it’s harder to recover from her dark side.

Magneto offers his help to defeat S’Ym and the rebel demons. Magneto’s power and battle experience bring her an edge against the techno-transformed demons. She wins a temporary peace.

The Fallen Angels

Magneto, increasingly anxious about The New Mutants’ safety, is trying to get an ever tighter grip on them. A bit desperate, he accepts The Hellfire Club’s proposal to fill their vacant White King’s position. Storm approves. The other X-Men and The New Mutants consider it a treason.

During a rough soccer game, Roberto seriously wounds Sam using his Sunspot’s power. Magneto scolds him. Roberto runs away. Warlock goes after him. Together, they join the band of runaway mutants calling themselves “The Fallen Angels”. They roam the streets of New York, under the leadership of The Vanisher, an early X-Men adversary.

Magneto asks for Moira MacTaggert’s help. She sends Siryn and Multiple Man.

Among the runaways, Ariel is an alien from a species deprived of genetic mutation, thus evolution. Her presence among the Fallen Angels is just a scam to bring new genetic stock, preferably mutants, to her home world “Coconut Grove”.

Ariel betrays The Fallen Angels and sends them to her home world. There, she’s betrayed by Unipar, her leader. The Fallen Angels fight back. Ariel sides with them. When they get the upper hand against Coconut Grove’s troops, Ariel arm-bends Unipar to let the Fallen angels go. She brings them back to Earth.

Siryn and Multiple Man stay with The Fallen Angels. Roberto and Warlock go back to The New Mutants.

Karma splits

Meanwhile, the rest of The New Mutants are invited to a very posh party at The Hellfire Club’s townhouse in New York. The grown-ups make it a token of good will between the two parties. The youngsters are much more bitter.

The tension is obvious: between Selene and Amara, between Sam and Jetstream, between Doug and Tarot then Roulette, between Illyana and Empath, between Dani and Thunderbird. Only Rahne and Catseye seem to get along.

The New Mutants and The Hellions decide to settle it with a competition. They will expose a crook who made a false statue of Selene and provoked an awkward situation between The Black Queen, Amara and The Black Rook. It involves Viper (Ophelia Sarkissian). The Hellions, particularly Thunderbird, outwit The New Mutants and win.

Karma takes advantage of all the commotions to investigate the Hellfire Club’s database, expecting to find a lead for her missing siblings. She’s exposed. Tessa guarantees they already tried this approach, without result. Magneto confirms. Karma, one of the few to trust Magneto, believes them.

However, as she estimates Magneto’s efforts are not enough, and she can’t just stand waiting, she decides to go after them on her own. She leaves the team. Her path will lead her to Madripoor, where she, once more, will work for her criminal uncle. She’ll cross Wolverine, then calling himself Patch.

The death of Doug Ramsey

With Warlock and Sunspot still missing, The New Mutants go to a party held for Lila Cheney’s new album. She’s still Cannonball’s girlfriend.

A gang of interstellar thieves tries to convince Lila to take part in a robbery. She refuses. As they think it’s because of Sam’s influence, they drug him to get him out of the picture. The drug makes him go into a rampage. He collides with a building where the authorities are holding a strange bird-man creature they captured earlier. The creature is set free.

The New Mutants fight the gang and neutralize them. Illyana sends the thieves to Limbo, to think a bit about their future.

With something starting as a harmless prank, Dani reveals Amara is in love with Empath. The Nova Roman is very upset. Upset at Dani, upset at her father asking her to get back to Nova Roma to get married, and indeed in love with Empath, Amara leaves The New Mutants to join the Massachusetts Academy.

She has quite a hard time there. Partly manipulated by Empath and the White Queen, teased by the other Hellions, she eventually goes back to Nova Roma. Empath goes along, half willingly, half following Frost’s orders.

Seeing the bird-creature chased by the authorities, The New Mutants decide to help him. The Hellions find out about this and decides that if The New Mutants want him, it’s worth interfering, just for the principle. Both teams race to get Bird-Boy. This time, The New Mutants win.

They take him, discreetly, to the X-Mansion. The Danger Room, with its holographic environments, allows them to reproduce a scene where the creature is at peace. They start to know him and, thanks to Doug, understand him. Bird-Boy’s troubled history moves them.

The full moon arises. It drives Bird-Boy toward his island of origin. The New Mutants, once more against Magneto’s explicit order to stay safe in the school, decide to follow the creature. On the island, they discover that Bird-Boy is the product of a mad scientist’s genetic manipulations. Other man-beast creatures exist there, in a mutant remake of Dr Moreau.

The scientist indeed works for Cameron Hodge’s The Right. The anti-mutant leader is not pleased. He personally comes to investigate. A big fight explodes, where the man-beast creatures fight The Right for their liberty.

In a jump to push Rahne out of harm’s way, Doug Ramsey is killed. A enraged Illyana starts sending The Right’s personnel (mad scientist and guards) to Limbo.

Roberto and Warlock come back from their escapade with The Fallen Angels. They find the mansion empty of their friends. Roberto blames Magneto for not trying hard enough to locate them. He and Warlock manage to find and join the rest of The New Mutants.

Too late for Doug. The New Mutants are devastated, particularly Warlock and Rahne. Back at the Mansion, Magneto is not there. Indeed, he was using The Hellfire Club’s resources to locate the missing teenagers.

The New Mutants see, in live broadcast on TV, the X-Men’s sacrifice in Dallas. Illyana takes her brother’s death very badly. She feels responsible as she brought the recovering Colossus from Muir to Dallas.

Magneto gets back, very upset about their disobedience. When he finds out about Cypher, he gets particularly mad, not really caring about the X-Men. Illyana rejects him. She goes to Limbo. As she can’t see Colossus through her scrying glass (because of the “dead to the eyes” status of the X-Men by Roma), she goes hysterical.

She retrieves her Soul Sword (thus freeing S’Ym to advance his coup), and lashes out at Magneto and The New Mutants who try to calm her. Everything has gone wrong between headmaster and students.

Before Doug’s funeral, in front of the open casket, The New Mutants have trouble adjusting to that reality. Warlock, who was by far the closest to Cypher, can’t grab the concept of his friend’s dying while his body looks so alive.

Indeed, he thinks it’s a good idea to animate the dead body, as if it would be alive, just as in this “Night of the Living Dead” movie Dani was watching earlier. Of course, it freaks everybody out.

Illyana is now determined to avenge her dead brother. She goes for the one responsible: Forge. She visits a recovering Kitty, on Muir Island. But she doesn’t get the support she expected. She’s ready to do it alone, but the rest of The New Mutants hijack her teleportation disc. To get to Forge, they first go against The Freedom Force. Then, Magik battles Forge in a sorcerers’ duel.

To get the upper hand she must draw on her evil self and transport the fight in Limbo. Ultimately, Forge gives up, as he feels guilty as can be. Darkchylde decides it’s worse letting him live in guilt that to kill him. Forge is spared.

Evolutionary Wars

The New Mutants are involved in the Evolutionary Wars. The High Evolutionary kidnapped Magma and tries to remove her power.

The New Mutants rescue her, with the help of 2 captive Morlocks: Bulk and Glow Worm. Mirage is accidentally trapped in the power removing machine, instead of Amara. Bulk reverses the process, turbo-charging Dani’s powers.

From now on, when she gets an image from someone’s mind, it’s no longer an illusion. It’s real. It stays real, until she makes another image appear.

Dani learns to create a “good” thing to force any “not so good” thing she created to disappear. She focuses on a reduced version of her Valkyrie’s spear. She wears the miniature weapon as a pendant.

Gossamyr

Sam goes to a Lila Cheney’s concert in New York. He witnesses the abduction of his girlfriend by the Alien slaver named Spyder. The audience doesn’t realize it’s an abduction as Lila routinely uses spectacular visual effects during her shows.

Seeing the incident live on TV, the New Mutants teleport in to fight off the abducting team. The aliens nevertheless escape with the singer.

Enter Gossamyr, an attractive alien female with strong empathic powers. Boys are immediately seduced, girls are immediately suspicious. She explains she managed to escape Spyder and came to Earth. Her parents are captives of Spyder, too. Gossamyr pretends she could help free Lila if they help free her parents.

They go to Limbo where Illyana tries to locate Lila with her damaged scrying glass (shattered by Forge during their duel). She succeeds but also has a very scary vision of herself in the darkest possible aspect of her Darkchylde personality. The surrounding demons get very excited by that vision. She gets everybody out of Limbo in emergency.

When The New Mutants confronted The Freedom Force in Dallas, Destiny made a very scary prophecy about Illyana and Limbo. The combination of this prophecy and of her scrying glass’ vision makes Magik afraid to use Limbo again. To go to Lila, The New Mutants decide to use Gossamyr’s space shuttle. They expect to use Lila’s long range teleportation to get back.

Things go out of control. Gossamyr’s parent are transformed into planet eating monsters. Lila sacrifices herself and teleports them in the local sun. Illyana reluctantly transports The New Mutants to Limbo to get back to Earth.

Inferno

Unrest is growing in Limbo where S’Ym is getting bolder in his ambition over Illyana’s position. He allies with N’astirh.

N’astirh is a major demon who was the disciple of Belasco, before he preferred the child Illyana. He salvaged one of Belasco’s spell books when Illyana destroyed them after her victory in Limbo. Now is the time to unleash his master plan to conquer both Limbo and Earth.

N’astirh’s influence is already felt and Manhattan is getting perverted. He sets a base of operation and sends lesser demons to do his work. Objects start to animate and hurt people.

When The New Mutants emerge in Limbo, from Spyder’s planet, S’Ym locks them in the middle of an outright armed rebellion against Illyana. He picked up her Soul Sword, and becomes very powerful.

N’astirh uses his magic to prevent Illyana’s stepping discs from getting out of Limbo. He convinces Illyana that only through the acceptance of her full Darkchylde personality will she grasp enough power over S’Ym. It’s the only way to get her sword back and open her portal towards Earth again.

She does and manages to open a stepping disc toward Manhattan, bringing The New Mutants back “home”. That was the first part of N’astirh plan.

N’astirh prepares the next stage: the sacrifice of 13 mutants babies to leave Illyana’s portal open so Limbo’s demons horde will pass freely to our dimension. The peak of this sacrifice is Nathan Christopher Summers, son of Cyclops and Madeline Pryor. For that, he manipulates Madelyne’s frustration over Scott and Jean. He awakens Madelyne’s latent Phoenix powers. She becomes The Goblin Queen.

The youngsters of X-Terminators try to interfere. N’astirh blackmails one of them into building a computer to handle his complex spells. He tricks S’Ym into infecting him with Magus’ trans-mode virus.

Thus infected, N’astirh gets the ability to interact with the computer. However, X-Terminators and The New Mutants combine forces to destroy the computer and free the sacrificial babies. At last, the portal closes.

Demons and demonic influence still rage through the city. X-Men, X-Factor, X-Terminators and The New Mutants fight them. In a violent effort of reflection and self-consciousness, Illyana throws all her power into repelling Limbo’s influence. She sacrifices her present self. She leaves her 6-years old self in her place, just like she was before Belasco abducted her.

N’astirh stays, more powerful than ever, now that the trans-mode virus gives him a technological access to magic. A powerful ally has he, with The Goblin Queen. X-Men and X-Factor will eventually join their forces and destroy both.

Shortly before, Rachel Summer, now Excalibur’s Phoenix, feels the fear of “her little brother” and rushes to New York. The rest of Excalibur follows. They are caught in the mayhem. Never do they have a chance to notice the X-Men are still alive. Shadowcat has a vision of Illyana’s Soul Sword (and armor). She always does when Illyana loses her influence over Limbo.

The sword ends in a rock, in front of Excalibur’s lighthouse, in a very Arthurian fashion.

In her last breath, Madelyne pointed toward Mister Sinister. X-Men and X-Factor confront him at Xavier’s School. The school is destroyed in the process.

The New Mutants and X-Terminators’ teens go back to X-Factor’s ship, with all the babies rescued from N’astirh’s pentacle. Gossamyr decides to get back to her home planet. The New Mutants go back to Xavier’s school.

Kitty takes advantage of Excalibur’s presence in New York to go to the mansion and collect personal things. She confronts The New Mutants in the ruins, rudely calling them X-Babies. She also blames them for Doug’s death and Illyana’s return to infancy. They will bring Illyana back to her parents, at the collective farming home in Siberia.

Magneto and his new friends of the Hellfire Club come to the X-Mansion. In a brief confrontation, Magneto traps The New Mutants in a steel bubble.

The Black King and the White King find the positions about human/mutants relations irreconcilable, and a fight erupts. Magneto has the upper hand. Shaw is expelled from the Inner Circle. But The New Mutants are now openly and completely opposed to Magneto. They leave him here to rejoin X-Terminators on X-Factor’s ship.

They have a brief encounter with Namor, over an Atlantean artifact able to call krakens.

Return to Asgard

Dani starts to have strong headaches and increasingly frequent and morbid visions of her own death. The Ship’s medical facilities can’t do anything for her. The New Mutants decide to go to Dr Strange for mystic help.

In front of The Sorcerer Supreme’s house, in the middle of the street, Dani and Brightwind (the winged horse) burst into flames. She starts attacking her teammates, obviously possessed by some evil outside influence. Strange cannot help.

Only Dani’s spirit manages to contain the possession and prevents it from killing her friends. The New Mutants battle her. In a flash of awareness, Mirage unleashes her power on herself, conjuring a giant ice machine to freeze her. She encases both Brightwind and herself in a prison of ice. It contains her possessed body.

In Hel, Hela witnesses the scene and reveals her doing in Dani’s torment. All Asgard is currently cast in The Negative Zone, making any contact with Midgard impossible through Bifrost, the enchanted bridge. The goddess plans to take over Asgard by corrupting all the Valkyries, and that includes Mirage.

Warlock transforms into a giant lifting machine to carry Dani’s ice machine and its precious encased payload. It’s a very slow process. The Freedom Force is dispatched to deal with the fire attacks of the possessed Mirage.

However, they are misled, thinking the attacks were done by Rusty Collins. The boy is currently under an arrest warrant for deserting The Navy and attacking bystanders. The Freedom Force engages The New Mutants. The battle goes to ground, on Liberty Island.

Skids wraps Rusty in her force field, preventing the Freedom Force from catching them. The New Mutants try to reach The Ship. They are intercepted but manage to sink the pursuing copter. Avalanche launches a huge wave that catches Warlock and Mirage’s ice machine. It releases the possessed Valkyrie from her ice prison.

At last, Dr Strange discovers Hela’s influence. Before the released Mirage can do any more damage, he sends the whole New Mutants team to Asgard.

In Asgard, they discover the extent of Hela’s plans. Odin, after an important battle against giants, is recovering in his magic sleep. Thor is still away from Asgard. Asgard is out of reach while it’s still trapped in the Negative Zone.

Hela takes advantage of these conditions. She possessed the Valkyries. She ordered them to collect warriors from the living, which is normally forbidden by Odin. She thus assembled an army of her own, with the best warriors from all the peoples of Asgard.

The New Mutants are separated. With the help of some Asgardian heroes (including the friends The New Mutants made during their first adventure in Asgard), each group manages to assemble an army, among those people still free of Hela’s influence. The two armies clash.

During the battle, Hela sends Dani to kill Odin with a specially designed magical sword. The Dwarf Lord who forged the sword purposely flawed it. Cannonball charges Mirage and breaks the sword. The resulting magical explosion breaks Hela’s hold on the Valkyries and her slave army. She’s defeated.

The New Mutants receive a map of the dimensions currently surrounding Asgard. With it, Warlock brings everybody back to Earth. In the aftermath of Hela’s war, Mirage decides to stay in Asgard. She thinks her place is among her sisters, The Valkyries, to repair the damage done.

Acts of Vengeance

Meanwhile, Rusty and Skids were left behind on Liberty Island. The Freedom Force can’t let them run away. Rusty and Skids know The Freedom Force secretly took the 13 mutant babies (from N’astirh’s pentacle) to the federal government. That information cannot go public.

They scoop the ground below the youngsters and bring it to a federal prison, out of sight of the public. There, Skids can’t keep her force field forever. When she drops of exhaustion, Rusty can do nothing to prevent their arrest.

Rusty is sent to a maximum security prison. The Vulture is his cell neighbor. With the help of The Wizard, The Vulture gets his flying harness back and escapes. Rusty, unable to prevent it, escapes with him in hope of limiting any damage the villain might do afterward. The Vulture easily gets rid of him.

Rusty frees Skids. Together, they go after The Vulture. They try to stop him in his scheme to free Nitro. They fail. Nitro explodes and goes away. The Freedom Force now have another good reason to take Rusty and Skids to a secure discreet prison.

Enters Cable

In The Freedom Force’s headquarters, The Mutant Liberation Front, under Stryfe’s command, frees Rusty and Skids. Cable, close on the terrorists’ trails, cannot prevent it. Zero teleports the MLF away with Rusty and Skids. Cable is taken into custody and blamed for the successful jailbreak.

Cable manages to escape. The Freedom Force goes after him. The New Mutants, shortly back from Asgard, help Cable to take refuge in X-Factor’s Ship. Rictor is shocked to see Cable, but never explains why.

Cable fills the mentor’s role left vacant when Magneto abandoned Xavier’s School and The New Mutants. This displeases Rictor, who doesn’t trust Cable. But he still won’t tell why. Cable leads The New Mutants along a new rationale: more cynical, more violent, always a little more away from Xavier’s initial vision of peace between humans and mutants.

X-Tinction Agenda

The New Mutants and The X-Men both live in the remnants of the X-Mansion. As the mansion itself is destroyed (by Sinister at the end of Inferno), both teams live in the underground complex. The lack of space is starting to get on everyone’s nerves.

Suddenly, Genoshan troops, led by Havok as a magistrate, assault Xavier’s estate. Their intent is to hit and run, kidnapping the X-Men. On a hunch, Storm blocks the underground access hatch, thus preventing X-Men reinforcements to arrive. Pipeline brings back the Genoshan, along with what captives they managed to make: Storm, Rictor, Boom-Boom, Wolfsbane and Warlock.

Cable is not pleased by Storm’s action, which prevented him from rescuing his pupils. The investigation of the material the Genoshans left when transported away by Pipeline is not conclusive. However, they soon learn who is responsible. X-Factor joins the X-Men and The New Mutants to think about what to do next.

Behind the scenes, we discover that Cameron Hodge, or what’s left of him, is the mastermind of the attack. His immortal head is attached to a monstrous cybernetic body. It drove him insane. Rictor recognizes Hodge. He remembers the time he was held captive and tortured by The Right. He is paralyzed by terror and can’t take his part in the opening combat. The captured mutants are depowered by Wipeout.

Pipeline’s transfer left Warlock very weak. His depowered friends are willing to give portions of their life force for him to drain. Hodge interrupts. He wants to steal Warlock’s Transmode Virus, so he will be able to give a human form to his monstrous artificial body. He orders The Genegineer to make it happen.

Warlock, barely able to move anymore, takes advantage of the time left to free his friends. Indeed, he sacrifices himself for it, throwing his last strength in the process. The escapees split, leaving Warlock behind. Rictor and Boom-Boom manage to get out of The Citadel.

Though they are depowered, Cable’s combat training makes them still efficient enough to manage their escape. Storm goes back to The Citadel. Her training as a thief makes it quite easy. Rahne voluntarily goes back, in a stupid attempt to save Warlock.

The process to steal Warlock’s Transmode Virus is ready. Hodge orders The Genegineer to start. Before the end of the transfer, Rahne, still depowered, attacks. She fails to save Warlock but interrupts the process. Now Warlock is reduced to ashes, but Hodge has failed to get the Transmode Virus.

He’s quite mad at Rahne. Hodge orders The Genegineer to immediately process Rahne to become a mutated slave. But The Genegineer, against Hodge’s orders, arranges to make the process partially reversible.

Genosha makes a public announcement about the capture of the X-Men and the official death of one of the prisoners (Warlock). They make the mind-wiped Rahne issue a statement about the wrongness of the previous X-Men interference on Genoshan’s affairs.

Now made public, the situation starts to escalate into an international crisis. The US military machine gets in gear, threatening the small island with retaliation. Hodge is jubilant over the rightful development of his scheme. The Genegineer starts to freak out.

Val Cooper has an interview with the X-Teams’ leaders, with Cable representing The New Mutants. The US Government cannot sanction any intervention on Genoshan land, but it will not interfere. Cooper gives them what information the government has on Genosha.

X-Factor, X-Men and what’s left of The New Mutants land on Genosha. They expect to fly undetected. But Hodge notices their landing. He welcomes the mutants’ party with a detachment of magistrates. He pushed the irony in appointing Havok as the field leader.

Cyclops understands, as they’re both insensitive to each other’s power. He tries to get Havok’s senses back. It doesn’t work.

Storm stayed in The Citadel to take The Genegineer hostage. The Genegineer takes part in a televised international debate against Moira MacTaggert. Moira, under the dark influence of The Shadow King, makes a terrible display of verbal violence.

Still, she impresses The Genegineer. Tired by the debate, he retires to his quarters. That’s when Storm gets him under her knife.

Hodge happens to visit The Genegineer. He violently neutralizes Storm. He’s ready to kill her on the spot. The Genegineer, who wants to oppose Hodge in this madness, manages to save her life. He will process Storm immediately. He arranges for just a superficial processing. In time, Storm will be his ace in the sleeve to defeat Hodge.

Wolverine, Jubilee and Psylocke enter the scene. They save Rictor and Boom-Boom from pursuing magistrates. Jubilee stays with the young mutants. Wolverine and Psylocke infiltrate The Citadel disguised as magistrates. The scam fails when they meet Havok.

A big fight follows. Hodge reinforces the magistrate and captures Wolverine and Psylocke. They make a public display of this capture, to show Genosha’s determination and skill.

Cyclops and Cable make a plan to invade The Citadel. The stealthy ones (Cable, Jean Grey, Gambit, Sunspots and Forge) infiltrate and set demolition charges. The flamboyant ones (Cyclops, Beast, Cannonball, Iceman, Banshee and Archangel) prepare a shock troops’ all out assault. The plan fails. Everybody is captured. Genosha displays a mock-trial of these dangerous terrorists.

All the prisoners are sent, manacled, in an isolated chamber, except for Forge (who put himself in a catatonic trance to avoid revealing his last asset) and Psylocke who is carried away. When alone, Gambit uses a projectile that hit him to escape from his restraints, then he frees the others.

The Genegineer is ordering a mutate to tunnel the ground to reach Hodge laboratory. Rictor, Boom-Boom and Jubilee notice him and follow. When the mutate breeches the wall of Hodge’s lair, Forge’s asset detonates, ruining Hodge’s information center. At least, his world crusade against mutants will seriously be delayed.

Havok finally gets his memory back. The Genegineer explains how to partially restore Wolfsbane to normal. In her human form, she’s a mindless mutate. In her wolf or man-wolf form, she’s herself, and even more powerful than before.

The mutants are now completely reunited, Havok included. They form a convenient alliance with The Genegineer and The Chief Magistrate. Forge discovers how to neutralize Hodge phasing mechanism.

The Genoshan president is impeached at gun point and committed to a mental institution. A final all-out assault defeats Hodge. It takes a bit of time as his head, once detached from his destroyed cybernetic body, still lives. Rictor crumbles the whole Citadel on it.

In the aftermath, Havok decides to stay in Genosha to monitor their anti-mutant apartheid. Rahne, more powerful than before, feels the need to help her fellow Genoshan mutates. From initial lineup of The New Mutants, only Cannonball and Sunspots are left. Now, it’s made of: Cable as mentor, Cannonball, Sunspots, Boom-Boom, Rictor.

Soon, Domino will join on Cable’s call. Further joined by more warriors The New Mutants will become The X-Force.

By Nicolas Lemaçon.

Source of Character: Marvel Universe (primarily X-Men, New Mutants and X-Factor comics up to X-Force #1).

Helper(s): Marvel Wiki , Darci, Pufnstuff, Sébastien Andrivet.

Writeup completed on the 07^th of January, 2016.