In a secret grotto, hidden on an island off the coast of the Savage Land…
Magneto has finished rebuilding his old helmet. Amphibius compliments that it looks perfect, but Magneto disagrees with that. However, he guesses, for now it will have to do. Magneto mentions that he has also remade his old costume, or at least something that looks close enough like it, with the aid of the raw materials that their hiding place currently provides. The reason why he changed costumes is because he will soon attack some people again, and he wants them to know who killed them!
Meanwhile, a still amnesiac Iceman helps Karl with rebuilding his hut. Suddenly, Bobby realizes Karl never told him his name. However, Karl claims that, since Bobby has been unable to tell him his name, Karl lies that him telling his name has never come up. However, he lies again, Bobby can call him “Joe Smith” if he wants. Bobby jokes that “Joe” mustn’t have much trouble registering at hotels with a name like that. He hopes Joe doesn’t take any offense, but his name sounds kind of fake to him. Karl doesn’t care, and tells Bobby that he asked for a name and he has given him one. To himself, Karl silently reminds that he can’t tell Bobby his real name, on the fear that it might trigger his memory back and he’ll attack him, realizing he is his powerful enemy Sauron. Bobby calms Karl down, not wanting to cause a fight between them, since after all, Karl did save his life.
Elsewhere, Havok and Lorna have taken the time to drop Ka-Zar back off at his home. Alex mentions to “Magnetrix” that it isn’t far anymore to Bobby’s location. Lorna warns Alex to stop calling her by that name, as they both agreed it was the dumbest codename she could come up with for herself. After all, Lorna reminds Alex, she doesn’t see him coming up with a better codename, as he has gotten his from a bad guy! Alex gets the point. At that moment, the mini-Cerebro’s warning signal goes off, and Alex thinks that Iceman must be on the island they can now see in front of them.
Meanwhile back at Dunfee, Illinois, present time…
Ashley’s mom calls out to her daughter, wanting to check if she’s alright. Hank warns Mrs. Martin though because, right now, Ashley’s powers are at their peak, and those powers are something neither him nor the Professor have ever experienced before. Ashley’s mom is still surprised that her daughter took down the Sentinel all by herself. Ashley defends that was the robot’s own fault, as she thought it was her friend but instead the machine betrayed her. And she blames it all on the Professor, because “Big Bot” was just fine until he got there.
The Professor explains that it’s true that his and Hank’s presence triggered the Sentinel’s mutant-hunting program, but he fears it would have been only a matter of time before Ashley’s own mutant powers would have kicked in and would have done the exact same thing. Hank warns the Professor to be careful about what he says, as this might be familiar to the two of them, but is terra incognita to little Miss Martin.
Ashley’s mom admits she would have never thought her daughter would possess such amazing powers. However, she suddenly remembers that, sometimes, it looks like Ashley’s toys seem alive somehow. The Professor explains that term is called “psychokinetic bounding.” He explains that, somehow, Ashley is able to project her own life force into unliving matter, including that Sentinel. He tries to approach Ashley, but she warns him to stay away from her! She attacks the Professor with a powerful beam, but luckily Hank rescues him just in time by pulling him out of his wheelchair. Charles mentions that he could feel Ashley commanding the very molecules of his chair to obey her very will. This is something much more than Marvel Girl’s telekinesis. Something much more dangerous!
At the same time on the freighter ship, present time…
As the anchor is weighed as the ship is in sight of land, Kreuger’s men report that they’ll wait for the buyers to come to them. A two-headed mutant carries away Candy, mistaking her for Marvel Girl because she’s still wearing her uniform. The mutant jokes it’s a shame Kreuger had to use his mutant powers to knock her out, because he sure could have some fun with a beautiful little girl like her. After all, girls like her don’t come aboard their ship often. Candy suddenly wakes up, surprising the mutant and knocking his heads against each other. Having knocked out her captor, Candy begins to climb the stairs to a higher deck. As she ascends, Candy thinks that, in the short time she has been hanging out with the X-Men, she sure has learned what it means to perform the impossible.
Nearby, Blunt mentions to his master that the buyers are coming in their ship. Kreuger states that he can see that for himself, and warns Blunt not to let his enthusiasm consume him, because they have business to content. Kreuger steps forward, and welcomes none other than… Mastermind and Unus! He notices that the Blob isn’t with them this time and wants to know the reason. Unus jokes that the Blob tends to fall through the bottom of boats like theirs. Mastermind explains that the Blob is waiting for them back on the shore, but has given the two of them enough power to negotiate.
Kreuger has his men reveal the unconscious body of the real Jean and Cyclops. Mastermind reminds Kreuger that he informed them he had captured three X-Men, so he wants to know where the missing person is. Kreuger replies that Marvel Girl is still below and that his men are bringing her up as they speak. Mastermind doesn’t understand what Kreuger is talking about, since he can see Marvel Girl right next to Cyclops. As Kreuger becomes confused, Candy jokes that Kreuger thought wrong, and throws a steel hook against his head. Confused himself, Mastermind wants to know who Candy is, and Unus notices that she’s dressed like Marvel Girl as well.
Candy starts to run away, realizing that this situation is turning out to be less fun than she thought it would. She thinks that this may not have been want the real Marvel Girl would have done, when she told her to pretend to be her when Kreuger captured them earlier. She runs further on the ship, but more of Kreuger’s men show up and recognize the imposter, and begin to chase her. Candy runs away again, thinking to herself that clocking Kreuger the way she did didn’t wake up either Jean or Scott like she would hoped. And somehow she doesn’t think the self-defense course she took at the learning annex is going to do her much good against this attacking crowd. She races into the ship’s interior, and descends some stairs. However, something is wrong. She has only walked down about ten steps and, as she looks in front of her, it appears there are a million more before her! Candy starts to panic and wants to know where the exit is!
Little does Candy realize that she has been fooled by Mastermind’s power of illusion. She can’t handle the strain, and faints. Kreuger admits he’s impressed by the great power Mastermind possesses. To this, Mastermind jokes that he didn’t became a charter member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants by being anything less than being the best at what he does. Unus mocks that Mastermind is also the most humble one of their crew, too. Mastermind warns Unus to get smart with him, and makes him believe that snakes are crawling all over his body!
Kreuger warns Mastermind to stop, and thinks it’s no wonder mutants never accomplished the goal of world conquest: they spend too much time fighting amongst themselves. Now, Kreuger wants to negotiate about the price for the X-Men: it’s one hundred thousand dollars. He wants to know if the Brotherhood is prepared to pay that price. Mastermind smiles that they are, and throws the money at him. He jokes that Kreuger can add this pile of money to the 30 big ones they already paid for Angel earlier.
Later, Mastermind and Unus have returned to their ship, and meet up with the Blob who’s being treated like a king by lots of beautiful girls. He can’t believe that Kreuger fell for Mastermind’s illusion again. He almost wishes he could be there to see the look on Kreuger’s face once he realizes the money Mastermind handed over to him was nothing but fake. Mastermind reminds the Blob that he has seen how his powers work. He explains that the ones who are the most easily fooled by his illusions are the ones who think they can’t be fooled.
Blob still compliments his crew for the good work they have done. Unus smiles that they realized Kreuger that they, as “evil mutants” would be at each other’s throats, so that’s what they exactly gave him to see. Mastermind laughs, and adds that the prize for their little performance is worth more than all of the Oscars in Hollywood combined. Blob agrees with that, and looks at the caged X-Men, and thinks he’s ready to kick their butts! He concludes that this is something Magneto never got a chance for to do.
The Savage Land, a few moments ago…
Magneto leads Amphibius through a dark cave, and they arrive at the spot he wanted to be. Amphibius wants to know where they are, since he can’t take much more of the incredible heat that is in the tunnels. Magneto reveals that they are now deep under the island. He then shows Amphibius a shaft, and explains that it penetrates down into the deep lava fields from which the Savage Land draws much of its unnatural temperature from. And, as Magneto suspected, it looks like others came to this place before he did. He further explains that these mechanisms are a crude attempt to tap that potent geothermal energy. The intent was well-focused, but Magneto feels it was lacking in the single most important element, which is one he can provide.
Amphibius watches how his master waves with just his hand, and how the lava suddenly begins to boil and dance, almost as if it were alive! Magneto corrects that the lava isn’t alive. Nonetheless, it’s obedient to his power. Now, they only need to wait for the right moment, and their enemies above will be obliterated!
Meanwhile above, Iceman has wandered off from Karl. He can’t help but think there is more to his “Joe Smith” than meets the eye. Sure, he has done nothing to harm him ever since he woke up there, but Bobby realizes that in every one of their conversations, there has been an undercurrent, like “Joe” was a cork ready to pop at any second. Bobby suddenly notices Karl in a nearby tree, and wonders what he’s doing. Bobby realizes that this is the time of the day when “Joe” takes off to meditate. But, by the way he’s climbing those trees and gazing at something, that sure doesn’t look like meditating to Bobby. It almost looks like Joe is hunting.
Karl really is hunting. He locates his prey, a lone dinosaur, below him and attacks the creature, grabbing its neck tight! Karl realizes that the dinosaur is just an infant, but its life energy will be the paltry rations to help him get through another day. Bobby has watched the whole thing happening and wants to know what Joe is doing. He rushes over to Karl and asks him what he’s doing. Karl is already starting to absorb the dinosaur’s energy, and knows that he has been caught. Not here! he screams in his head, not now!!!
On that exact moment, they are attacked by a powerful energy blast! Magneto apologizes for the attack, but he mentions that he needs the resources of this island, and the two of them are simply in his way. Karl recognizes Magneto, who attacks him and Bobby again. Bobby jumps safely away, and heard that Joe called their attacker “Magneto.” He wonders why that name sounds so familiar to him. Bobby notices Magneto looking for him and goes to hide behind a tree. He wonders why he’s feeling so helpless suddenly. He knows it’s not just because Magneto is attacking him, it’s this overwhelming feeling he’s having, that he should be able to do something more to help out. Bobby notices that Joe also survived the attack and is getting up, but is in a bad shape.
Karl shouts at Bobby to stay away from him, calling him by his last name, Drake. Stunned at the name, Bobby asks Joe what he called him, and how he knew what know what it is. However, Bobby gets too close to Karl, who is no longer panicked. Suddenly, Karl grabs Bobby and starts absorbing Bobby’s life force, and there is nothing he can do to stop it. Euphoric at the absorption, Karl thinks to himself why not. Why should he deny the power that is his birthright? Karl Lykos may be ill equipped to deal with Magneto, but Sauron sure isn’t! Sauron triumphantly soars into the sky, ready for a battle!
At that moment, elsewhere in the Savage Land, present time…
As they speed over the water toward the island in their hover vehicle, Alex asks Lorna if she’s okay. Hesitant, Lorna replies that she isn’t sure about that. She just felt short of… woozy for a moment. Alex sure hopes Lorna didn’t catch something back there. He mentions that they can’t know what kind of prehistoric bugs that might still be running around in this land. Suddenly, all of the instruments aboard their plane start going crazy! Their readouts have gone haywire. Lorna wants to know if Alex can still fly the plane. Alex can’t, and their plane crashes down on the island below! Ironically, Iceman was just below them, and heads out to help his teammates.
Meanwhile, Sauron notices that Magneto has turned his attention away from him, and calls him a fool for doing that. Unaware of Sauron, Magneto heads back towards Amphibius, thinking he has destroyed his foes. He also compliments Amphibius on his fine work, and wants to continue their inspection of the site. He notices some restored ancient mechanisms, and thinks he has his “late friends” to thank for that. Suddenly, Sauron attacks Magneto again, who doesn’t even recognize Sauron in this form.
Sauron quickly hypnotizes Magneto, and he thinks he’s battling the X-Men again, this time in a weird landscape. An imaginary Cyclops hits Magneto with an optic blast, and an imaginary Beast kicks him from behind. Magneto still stands though, and angrily lashes out at Beast and hits him hard in the face, taking him out. Magneto wants to kill him with his powers, but to his surprise they do not work. Suddenly, an imaginary Jean Grey appears, who informs Magneto that they won’t work there. However, her powers work perfectly, and she uses her telekinesis to rip the ground from beneath Magneto!
The Savage Land…
Bobby has heard Sauron using his real name of Karl Lykos and, thanks to this, he now remembers who he is. He goes to check out the crashed plane, and thinks he recognizes Havok, who doesn’t look like he’s been hit that bad. He finds a girl unconscious outside of the plane, and immediately recognizes Lorna! Bobby tries to shake her awake, and it works. Lorna is surprised to see Bobby, and he now finally remembers everything again. Seeing Lorna was the missing link, which brought all of the pieces together again. Havok wakes up as well, and the three X-Men notice how Sauron keeps hypnotizing Magneto. And it looks like Sauron is also absorbing Magneto’s energy to become the strongest being there is.
Bobby knows exactly what they can do about it. Proudly, he quickly transforms into Iceman, and creates an ice-wall between the two villains. Sauron panics and loses control, giving Magneto the chance to come back to normal. He recognizes Iceman, but since he and his friends are the youngest members of his old colleagues’ team, Magneto foolishly believes they are the least of his worries. Sauron thinks that, when there are three X-Men around, more will definitely follow. Magneto finds Sauron to have a stupid name, since he knows it is pirated from a stupid fairy tale. Magneto admits he doesn’t recognize either Lorna or Havok, which she doesn’t understand, because it was only weeks ago Magneto claimed to be her father.
Sauron realizes he lost the element of surprise, but thinks he has an idea. He spies Havok, and quickly hypnotizes him. He has Alex use his powers on Magneto, and Sauron states that Havok’s power is even greater than those of his brother Cyclops. Magneto is surprised to learn that Cyclops has a sibling. Below them, Lorna suddenly starts to feel dizzy. Bobby quickly de-powers so she won’t freeze to death, and asks Lorna what’s wrong. Lorna explains that she’s feeling the same dizziness she felt when she and Alex first traveled to the Savage Land, and it feels like every cell in her body is tingling.
Magneto admits that Havok’s power is great, but he knows how to fight against it. He uses his powers to lift up the molten lava from the ground beneath him, and aims it towards Havok! Sauron triumphs, as this is exactly as he had hoped Magneto would do. Lorna has herself and Bobby running away from the battle, as she realizes something. Every time she gets near Magneto, she feels weird. She also remembers that the instruments on her plane started acting weird, and according to what Bobby just told her, it was around the same time Sauron and Magneto began fighting each other. She thinks some kind of device is making her feel this way. The two find Amphibius, and see him messing with some sort of device. Iceman thinks this is the cause to Lorna’s problems, and uses his powers to release an ice-attack on the device Amphibius holds, and destroys it!
While flying in mid-air, Magneto feels that his powers suddenly fade away and starts falling. He believes that the X-Men must have found Amphibius and the broadcast power antenna! He falls onto a rock floating on the magma. We explains that in a moment the whole area will collapse into a sea of boiling lava. However, Magneto offers Sauron a partnership, so that they can both escape and defeat the X-Men together. In return, Sauron shall receive a place in his kingdom.
Sauron doesn’t think so because, there in the Savage Land, he already is his own king without anyone’s help. He notices that rock on which Magneto stands is about to go over into a crevice, in which the magma is flowing. As he goes over, Sauron takes off and says farewell to Magneto. As they return, Iceman notices Magneto falling. He realizes that, even though Magneto may be the worst enemy the X-Men have, this death he doesn’t deserve and uses his ice-slide to go after him, hoping he can rescue the master of magnetism.
Lorna shakes Alex back to her normal self, and hopes Bobby will safely return. As they wait, Sauron sneaks up to them and tries to hypnotize them again, so that he may feed upon them. Luckily, Iceman quickly returns and uses his ice-powers on Sauron, bringing him down. The crisis averted, Bobby explains to the recovering Alex and Lorna that he wasn’t able to save Magneto. Alex, however, tells him not to lose sleep over it. He did his best.
The trio then returns their attention to Sauron, who has recovered and begins to use his hypnotism again. He explains that they will do nothing with him, just as “nothing” is what he will do to them. If he kills them, then surely the rest of the X-Men will come searching for them. And he does not want that. Taking to the air, he explains that, as the destruction of the geo-thermal equipment robs him of any hope he might have harnessed that power to meet his own needs… Flying off, he tells them that he has removed their memories of knowledge of what has transpired there. They did not meet Magneto there, they did not battle Sauron. They simply…
Later, as they speed away on their craft, Lorna, Alex and Bobby have no memory, thinking they just found Bobby and are now bringing him and themselves back home. Alex warns Bobby to sit down, as their plane is flying at top speed. Alex doesn’t know what caused the damage which had the plane crash down, but thinks the Professor can figure it out once they get back home.
Below them, Amphibius watches the X-Men departing. With the X-Men, Magneto and Sauron gone, Amphibius suddenly transforms… into his human form! He explains that, with Magneto gone, so too at last is the power which kept him in his mutated form. He starts walking away deep into the Savage Land, thinking that all the dreams are away now, and all hopes dashed. All that remains is for him to find a way home, home to the emptiness that was his life as a savage in the Savage Land.
Epilogue, three days later…
Smoke still rises from a shattered site. Deep within the broken crust of the Earth, fire still burns. Suddenly, Magneto rises up from the ground. He lives! Some flickering remnant of the healing power of the island radiation must yet linger in his cells. Still, Magneto is weak and barely able to even support his own weight. He can’t go any further, and collapses again. On that moment, dinosaurs start flying above him, ready to feast on his body!
Prologue (of sorts), two days later…
A mile or so off the coast of the Savage Land, a sleek, mysterious vehicle moves silently through the dark waters. In it are Namor the Sub-Mariner and his servants. Namor asks his captain if they have reached their target. The captain confirms that up ahead is the site of the mysterious shock wave. Namor orders his troops to stay where they are while he investigates the matter. He jumps out of the ship and dives into the ocean, whose waters feel warm even though they should feel cold thanks to the ice above. Namor wants to know how this could be possible.
He flies up, and notices smoke in the distance. He notices the attacking dinosaurs, and quickly defeats them. Namor notices that there is apparently only one survivor to the disaster that just took place on this site. Namor has found Magneto! Namor checks if Magneto is still breathing, and he is. He believes that’s the only reason the dinosaurs hadn’t started eating up his body. Namor wants to take Magneto to Atlantis with him, yet it somehow doesn’t feel right to him. Magneto is known to him, and whatever dealings they had in the past have left Namor with little reason to trust him. But, this doesn’t mean he won’t help him, so Namor flies back home.
And so, Namor leaves the battlefield, never guessing the deadly game which he has been played here. No more than Namor can guess what lies but a few short hours later ahead, namely a great battle between Magneto and the Fantastic Four!
