Leaves X-Men: Banshee

First Appearance: Katherine "Kitty" Pryde, Sebastian Shaw, The White Queen/Emma Frost, Hellfire Club Armored Goons, Cutler, Carmen and Terri Pryde

Villain: Sebastian Shaw, Jason Wyngarde, Emma Frost, Hellfire Club Armored Goons, Cutler

Guest Appearance: Moira MacTaggert, Lorna Dane, Alex Summers, Jamie Madrox, Katherine "Kitty" Pryde

Cameo: Carmen and Terri Pryde

Death: Armored Goons

Letters Page: Page One

Scott starts a dialogue with her, and he inevitably gets to the point of telling her how much he loves her and needs her. They embrace and kiss, and return each other's love. By the time they reach the school, they detect an unknown presence inside. They rush to find out what is going on, and inside, they see Professor Xavier, returned from outer space! Days pass as they all get used to being with one another again. As Jean and Scott pass the Danger Room, they see Wolverine burst out, angry that Xavier is treating him like a child. Scott goes to talk to Xavier about all that he has missed since he's been gone, and that the best way to treat the new X-Men is to handle them differently than he did the old team. Xavier chalks it all up to a failure of Scott's leadership why he can't get the new X-Men to fight as a team.

Little do either know, they are being monitored by Jason Wyngarde and the Hellfire Club, thanks to bugs planted by Warhawk many months previous (see XMEN #110.) Wyngarde tells the leader of the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw, not to take the X-Men lightly when it comes time to destroy them. Shaw retorts that he has his own power at his disposal, and Emma Frost, the White Queen, agrees with him! As they watch on the monitors, Xavier notices powerful mutant presences popping up in Chicago and New York. Xavier gets Logan, Peter and Ororo to accompany him to Chicago, while the rest of the team handles New York. And, unfortunately for them, their plans are noted by the Hellfire Club.

In Chicago, 13 year-old Katherine "Kitty" Pryde comes home to see her parents meeting with Ms. Emma Frost, from an exclusive boarding school in Massachusetts. Kitty assumes her parents are going to send her off to a school once they finally divorce. She goes to her room and nurses a splitting headache, but she suddenly finds herself on her bed one moment, and the floor in the living room below the next! She cannot explain what is happening to her. After talking with the Prydes, Ms. Frost says goodbye and heads out the door, only to see Xavier and his students coming up the sidewalk. Wolverine notes her scent as having trouble written all over it.

Carmen Pryde introduces them to his family, wife Terri and daughter Kitty. He tells his daughter that while they discuss her possible future at he School For Gifted Youngsters with the professor, Kitty will go to a malt shop with the rest of the students. At the shop, Kitty is excited to get to know Ororo, who tells Kitty all about her standing in the X-Men, saying it was okay for the Professor to tell her. While Kitty sits in reverent hero worship, a trio of armored warriors crash through the shop window and attack the X-Men. They drop their street clothes and take to their costumes, lashing back at the armor. Each armored unit is geared to counter a particular mutant's strengths, so after the X-Men realize this, they switch opponents and make easy work of them. During the battle, Kitty jumps back in fear and shock, and finds herself phasing completely through a brick wall and out into the alley way, where she passes out.

While Wolverine, Storm and Colossus try to figure out what's going on, they are knocked out by a surprise mental attack by the White Queen, Ms. Emma Frost. They pull the mutants aboard an escape vessel and head out towards the Hellfire Club's headquarters, ruthlessly killing the armored agents who were defeated before they leave. The White Queen explains to the Hellfire agent that that is what happens to those who fail in their duties. Little does she know, the escape craft has a stowaway, the young Kitty Pryde, who has started to realize she has mutant phasing powers, but has no idea what to do to help the X-Men.

(continued in XMEN #130)

--synopsis and panel images by Gormuu