Villain: Black Tom, Juggernaut

Origin: Storm

First Appearance: David and N'Dare Munroe (flashback,) Achmed El Gibar (flashback,)

Guest Appearance: Misty Knight, The Family

Cameo: David and N'Dare Munroe, Achmed El Gibar, Lilandra

Letters Page: Letters page coming soon!

The battle begins, with Juggernaut ripping into Nightcrawler, Wolverine and Colossus while Storm is racked with claustrophobia. Knowing that their powers are useless against each other, Sean Cassidy and Black Tom enter into a bare-knuckle brawl. The team works together against Juggernaut, all the while trying to cajole Storm into battle, but it is no use. Storm is too gripped with her phobia, and in her deepest part of her psyche she replays scenes from her past. She recalls her youth, leaving New York City as a child with her parents-her father a photojournalist- for Cairo, Egypt. Her idyllic world is shattered during the Suez War, when a French jet fighter crashes into her home, killing both her parents and leaving her an orphaned little girl. She is taken in by Achmed El Gibar and taught to survive as a street urchin, until her twelfth year of age when her powers became manifest, and she wandered south to the Serengeti Plain and took her role as goddess of the wind.

Her final thought is of her first meeting with Professor X, and these thought waves reach across the Atlantic to that same man, who is now fully aware of what is transpiring to his young charges in Ireland. Xavier asks for Scott, who is sitting with Jean and her friend Misty Knight. While Scott leaves to talk to the professor, Jean admits to Misty her uneasiness with seemingly dying and being reborn. Outside the room, Professor X asks Scott to leave for Ireland, and Scott, feeling his duty once and for all is to stay by Jean's side, refuses, much to the displeasure of Xavier. And to top it all off, Xavier's frustration and use of his powers lead him to see, once again, the strange alien being that has been haunting him in his dreams!

Back at Cassidy Keep, the struggle continues. Storm is still emotionally disabled, Sean and Black Tom are still beating each other up, and none of the other X-Men are able to make inroads against Juggernaut until Nightcrawler dumps a burning urn over his headpiece, causing him to scream in pain. Black Tom is able to discharge a blast from his power stick and knocks Nightcrawler into the shadows, where he seems to disappear from sight! As his body lies in invisibility in the dark corner, a false wall lifts up and some odd little men carry Nightcrawler away with them.

Finally, Black Tom gains the edge on Banshee, knocking him out, and despite laying down some massive punches, Colossus is unable to best Juggernaut, and gets crushed underneath a falling wall. Storm tries to snap out of her funk, and launches a feeble lightning bolt at the massive menace, but he turns it back to her, and for the time being, it seems that the total defeat of the X-Men can bring their ultimate prize- Charles Xavier!

(continued in X-MEN #103)

- -synopsis and panel images by Gormuu

- - panel scans provided by Jonathan Clarke, aka doesitmatter