Uncanny X-Men #316

Monet St. Croix and her bodyguard, former MI-6 Director Retired Colonel Gayle Cord-Becker, travel through Monaco by limousine. Gayle notes that it’s been three months since Monet spoke and that she’s constantly unresponsive. The former Colonel also mentions that Monet’s father is upset after what happened to Monet’s brother and twin siblings. Gayle has suggested to Monet’s father that Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters might be able to help his daughter, and that if Monet said the same to her father then maybe he’d consider it.

Suddenly, the limousine crashes. Harvest, a member of the Phalanx, approaches the vehicle and absorbs the driver. Gayle shoves Monet out of the vehicle and tells her to run before attempting to shoot Harvest with her gun. Her efforts end in failure and she is also absorbed by Harvest. Harvest then attempts a biocentric scan of Monet, but is unable to due to psionic interference. This leads him to believe that Monet may be the most powerful of the “Generation Next” Mutants that he has been tasked with capturing. He declares Monet to be the second of them that he has abducted and teleports away with her for testing.

Meanwhile, at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in Salem Center, New York, Banshee has returned from a weekend visit to Massachusetts. He finds Emma Frost is being restrained in the medical area. She insists that the X-Men are trying to kill her. Banshee suspects that Frost’s mind may have snapped after learning what happened to the Hellions as well as Professor X coaxing her mind out of Iceman’s body. As Emma continues to try to convince Sean, she is silenced by a sonic disrupter field. Sean thinks that maybe Iceman and Storm, who both had their bodies taken over by Emma, are not the best choice to be monitoring her. He voices his concerns to Storm. Storm insists that they can handle things.

Storm leads Sean away from the medical bay and tells him that Xavier left instructions on how to deal with Emma’s situation before he left for Muir Island. She says that once Sean has had some sleep things will look better. Banshee reflects that since he’s been away from the team for quite a while, since trying to pursue a relationship with Dr. Moira MacTaggert, that maybe this place doesn’t feel like home anymore and that he’d be more help to Mutants if he went elsewhere.

In the communications room, Banshee answers a video call from Cyclops and Phoenix. Scott tells Sean that he and Jean have information for the Professor about a possible cure for the Legacy Virus. Sean tells them that Charles is on Muir Island, then asks how the honeymoon was. Phoenix skirts around the issue, merely saying that it’s complicated. Scott asks Sean to let the rest of the X-Men know that they’re heading to Muir Island. After the call ends, Archangel swoops into the room demanding to know who the call was from and what was said. After Sean tells him, Archangel chides Sean for putting everyone at risk by relaying information to “unauthorised personnel”. Sean finds this odd as Scott and Jean are two of Archangel’s oldest friends.

Later, Sean reflects on all the roles he’s had in his life. He then heads to the Danger Room, but finds it occupied and locked. The computer informs him that Jubilee is inside, but is unsupervised. Banshee decides to ask the others why Jubilee is in the Danger Room with no adults monitoring her. Suddenly he sees Psylocke leave the Professor’s Ready Room. He ducks back into the shadows and, as Psylocke passes him, Sean wonders why she was in a room that’s normally off-limits and how, as a telepath, she didn’t detect Sean’s presence. Sean enters the room and finds Bishop and Gambit working on Cerebro. Sean tells them he’s in there looking for Charles and bluffs that Charles has started walking again.

After leaving the room, Sean realises something is wrong, since neither Bishop or Gambit reacted to his lie about Charles. He races to a computer and asks it to put him in touch with Storm. The computer replies that Storm is not on the grounds, despite the fact that Sean had seen her earlier. He then asks it to search for other X-Men, with the same results. He asks the computer to list all the people who are in the mansion. The computer replies with the only four identifiable life forms in the mansion: Banshee, Jubilee, Emma Frost, and Sabretooth.

Moments later, Banshee returns to the communications room. Despite only having been there half an hour ago to take Scott and Jean’s call, Banshee is shocked to see all the equipment in the room has been dismantled, a task which normally would have taken at least three weeks to accomplish. The Beast is in the room and tells Sean that he’s making some adjustments. After a brief chat with Beast, Banshee leaves the room.

Shortly after that, Sean heads down to the Maximum Security level. He greets Rogue and tells her that he’s going to take Sabretooth for his daily walk. Rogue physically tries to stop Banshee, but he uses his sonic scream to decimate the Phalanx Rogue. Banshee recognises it as the same creatures that Storm and Gambit had battled a week or two ago. Banshee wonders whether the Phalanx have made replicas of the team or assimilated them. Then he wakes Sabretooth out of his sedation.

The fake Rogue attacks again, but its attack is intercepted by Sabretooth. He obliterates the attacker, which goes some way to undoing the work that had been done to cure him of his animalistic rage. Banshee then tells Creed that the muzzle he’s wearing can be made to explode if Sabretooth attacks anyone other than the Phalanx. Banshee then sends Sabretooth to free Emma and Jubilee.

In another room, the Phalanx posing as Bishop informs the one posing as Gambit that their fellow Phalanx, posing as Rogue, is not responding which likely means that Banshee is aware that they’re not the real X-Men. Phalanx Gambit seems unconcerned, stating that once they’ve downloaded Xavier’s files and analysed Cerebro they’ll be able to assimilate Mutants, including the captive X-Men, just like they do with Humans. A hole blasts open in the floor and Banshee flies up through it, firing a gun, since he knows that the Phalanx might be able to adapt to his sonic scream. He’s relieved to hear that the X-Men are still alive.

At the same moment, further up in the mansion, the Phalanx versions of Iceman and Storm are being torn apart by the White Queen’s powers. She wants to hunt the rest, but Sabretooth, with the unconscious Jubilee under his arm, tells her that they have to meet up with Banshee.

Back in the Ready Room, the triumphant Banshee has initiated a self destruct sequence. In the 30 seconds remaining before it reaches its conclusion, Banshee checks on the computer what the Phalanx had been searching for. He sees the names of several young Mutants that Xavier had detected and their locations. The remaining Phalanx try to attack Banshee, but he drops through the hole in the floor, just before the Ready Room explodes.

Banshee uses his sonic scream to clear a path below him and lands in the sewer where he finds Sabretooth’s group. He tells them that he sent a communication to Xavier on Muir Island, explaining what had happened and telling him that he and Excalibur need to find the X-Men. Banshee then tells his group, including the now conscious Jubilee, that their task is to find and protect the young Mutants that had been detected.