Villain: Mutant X/Proteus (as Multiple Man, Ferdie Duncan and police officer), Jason Wyngarde

First Appearance: Ferdie Duncan

Guest Appearance: Moira MacTaggert, Lorna Dane, Jamie Madrox, Havok

Cameo: Ferdie Duncan, Angus MacWhirter's dead body

Death: Ferdie Duncan

Innovation: Mutant X calls himself Proteus for the first time

Letters Page: Page One

The X-Men waste no time flying the Blackbird straight to Muir Island in an hour's time. They enact their planned assault, with each member heading off in their preassigned battle plans. Nightcrawler is first to the scene, and he finds Lorna Dane and the dead body of Angus MacWhirter. Cyclops and Storm scan the island for traces of their friends, while Nightcrawler bumps into Havok and a dazed Jamie Madrox. They are also eventually reunited with Moira and Jean, and once they all get together, they exchange notes.

Jamie Madrox explains that while he was divided up as his Multiple Man persona, one of his clones was attacked by an unseen force, taking over his duplicate's form. Moira explains to all that it is the power of Mutant X, and it happens to be her son.

In the city of Stornoway, near Muir Island, Mutant X stalks the alleyways in the form of Jamie Madrox's duplicate. He bumps into Jason Wyngarde, but due to the mutant's immense psychic shield, he is not a suitable candidate for body-snatching. Instead, he finds a fellow walking out of a pub named Ferdie Duncan and steals his body.

The X-Men, aided by Moira, Havok, and Lorna Dane, fan out across the region to look for Mutant X. Moira explains to Scott that her son has two weaknesses: he must find new host bodies constantly, and he has a weakness to metal. As Phoenix flies over the countryside, she finds herself once again in a daydream, as if she's riding on the back of a black horse on a fox hunt, with the dashing Jason Wyngarde at her side. In the midst of this daydream, brought on by the evil Wyngarde himself, she stumbles onto the dead body of Ferdie Duncan.

Across town, Wolverine and Nightcrawler find themselves in a dense fog, with a policeman stopping them. Wolverine smells trouble with the cop, and realizes it's Mutant X. He tries to gain control of Wolverine, but quickly finds his adamantium skeleton is too overwhelming for him. The cop tries to fight both Wolverine and Nightcrawler off by bending reality completely, shattering their sense of equilibrium. As he does so, he declares his name henceforth to be Proteus, "the mutant who masters reality!" Storm arrives, and Proteus determines that since he can't have Wolverine, and Nightcrawler's monstrous form is no good to him to blend in with normal people, he will go after Storm! She tries desperately to fight him off, conjuring up a torrential wind to knock him back, but he walks forward, unstoppable...

(continued in XMEN #127)

--synopsis and panel images by Gormuu