Uncanny X-Men #322

After Archangel receives a telephone call from Detective Charlotte Jones he heads to meet her at 23rd Street and 12th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan as she requests. Once there he receives a hostile reaction from one NYPD officer who prepares to fire his weapon at Warren. Warren hears the gun being loaded and fires one of his metal feathers at the man which knocks him out for five minutes. Warren feels uneasy about the reaction, but Jones explains that once he’s seen what she asked him to come see he’ll understand why tensions towards Mutants is high.

Once inside the building, Warren apologises for not being in touch with Jones for a while. She then brings him into a room where 33 Humans have been killed. It’s being blamed on Mutants. Warren asks how she can be sure it’s Mutants that caused this. Jones then has Warren carry her upwards to see that the people responsible had “signed their work”. She tells Warren that she won’t be able to keep this incident out of the press, but she wanted him to see it so that he could give his opinion and so that he’d know what he was up against. Even after everything he’s been through as part of the X-Men what Warren sees from above shocks him.

At the Xavier Institute, Storm is walking across the lawn and using her powers to keep the rain from falling on her. She reflects on the condition of Gambit and wonders why he risked kissing Rogue in Israel when he knew what her power could do to him. As she’s lost in thought, Wolverine, who’s been living outside on the grounds since he pierced Sabretooth’s brain with his claws, remarks that maybe using her powers this way is a bit much. Storm replies that she isn’t the one who’s been living outside for two weeks.

Wolverine says that it’s better that he’s out there, but Storm insists that his place is with the team. Logan tells Storm that he can feel his grip on his humanity slipping away, but Storm doesn’t believe that after all the years she’s known him that he would give up now. At that moment, Siryn of X-Force comes to meet with Storm. X-Force have been at the Xavier Institute since their previous headquarters at Murderworld was destroyed. After relaying to Storm that Archangel has called with news of what he’s found, Siryn offers the help of X-Force while both teams wait for Cable and Professor X to finish their discussion.

In Hoboken, New Jersey, Henry McCoy, using an Image Inducer to make him look like his non-furry self, has taken Bishop to the cinema. The experience seems to have left Bishop baffled and he admits to having been distracted lately by the memories that haunt him, which caused him to attack Beast and Cyclops a few days ago. Suddenly they see an object shooting across the sky. The object lands nearby and the impact causes the ground to shake as well as leaving a path of destruction. As the two X-Men investigate they find Juggernaut, the object that they saw flying across the sky, laying unconscious in a trench in the street caused by his impact.

In Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Jean Grey-Summers is sitting on a swing in the backyard of her family home. Next to her, also on a swing, is her father, John Grey. Jean is explaining to him that it’s believed that Jean’s sister, Sara, John’s other daughter, was absorbed by the Phalanx shortly after she disappeared. She explains that once that happened Sara was dead. Her father indicates that a parent can sometimes feel when their child has died.

Jean apologises for not being able to save her sister, but her father feels certain Jean did everything she could. He then reminds Jean of what Sara said to Jean the day she left to join Xavier’s School. Jean is able to use her psionic power to manifest an image of the memory for both of them to see. Sara promised to love Jean, no matter what, and asked Jean to promise to use her Mutant ability to save the world. Before heading back into the house John says that both of them kept their promises.

Scott Summers, standing nearby, asks Jean if coming home ever makes her think about what they’ve sacrificed as X-Men and whether she’d want a normal life instead. Both of them agree that they wouldn’t have it any other way. As they drive away they are observed, telepathically, by Noah DuBois who admires the fact that Scott and Jean’s love has seen them through tough times as X-Men, but wonders if their love will survive dark days ahead.

Back in Hoboken, Beast is checking Juggernaut’s condition. Bishop and Beast both agree that Juggernaut has proven to be invulnerable ever since his first battle against the X-Men. So the fact someone was able to do this to him astonishes the pair. Psylocke arrives, unheard by Bishop, since she was supposed to collect the two of them from the cinema and didn’t find them. Beast checks Juggernaut’s pulse and breathing but, finding neither, declares that Juggernaut is dead.

So he’s surprised when Juggernaut’s eyes open and he lashes out. He knocks Beast into Bishop, smashing the Image Inducer. Before Juggernaut can go on a rampage Psylocke leaps onto his shoulders and jams her Psychic Knife into his head in an effort to calm him down. As she makes contact with Juggernaut’s mind she can hear his thoughts indicating that he’s scared of a “he” that will “kill us all”. Juggernaut hurls Psylocke off him and seems to still be scared of his mystery attacker.

After Beast leaps onto him Juggernaut is surprised to see him. This moment of surprise enables Beast to monkey flip Juggernaut to the ground in an effort to calm him down. Juggernaut is still yelling about someone who’ll kill everyone. Bishop approaches them with a large electrical cable around him. Beast questions Juggernaut as to where he thinks he is. He answers “Canada” as that was where he was when his attacker struck him. His outburst causes him to become more uncontrollable when he finds out he’s been knocked from Canada to New Jersey.

Bishop steps in and pours an enormous amount of electrical energy into Juggernaut. Normally it might not have an effect, but in Juggernaut’s weakened state it’s enough to take him down. The trio of X-Men continue to question Juggernaut. He tells them he was in his way to Westchester to warn the X-Men that his attacker was coming for them. When asked the identity of his attacker he tells them one word… “Onslaught”.