BIOGRAPHY - PAGE 2
Magneto’s attack on New York had turned the human population against mutants once again and the remaining Cuckoos were caught in a riot when they visited the nearby Salem Center. When 
Emma came to help, she was struck on the head by one of the mob, causing the girls to reluctantly go to her aid. Taking shelter in a nearby building, they made it perfectly clear that they did not respect Emma and were only helping her out of duty. Mindee especially was having a hard time adjusting to the loss of another of her sisters and chose to spend her time with her boyfriend Germaine, a fellow mutant. Things turned tragic when the riot stormed the building, causing Germaine to use his fire powers to repel them. The Cuckoos managed to escape but Germaine was beaten to death by the mob, leaving Mindee even more devastated than before. [New X-Men (1st series) #155-156]
Sensing the death of Jean Grey, the Phoenix Force returned to Earth in a confused state, believing itself to be Jean herself like it had done so many years before. In the form of a firefly, it travelled around the X-mansion searching for Cyclops. Coming across the Cuckoos, it sensed a great power in them but, as they were not what it was looking for it, put them to sleep before they alerted anyone. The Phoenix’s presence was sensed by Quentin Quire, who had remained in an energy form since the events of the riot. In a dazed state, he sought out Sophie but, when he found her other sisters, he suddenly remembered she was dead. Believing the Phoenix could bring her back to life, he dug up her body and sought the cosmic entity.
In the meantime, the Phoenix had announced its presence to the X-Men and was locked in battle with them. Quire interrupted the fight and gained the Phoenix’s attention long enough for it to restore Sophie to life again. The other Cuckoos felt their sister once more, but their reunion would be short lived. After a brief moment of confusion, Sophie realized what had happened and chose to die again out of disgust for Quire. The Phoenix began to lose control again and it was only stopped by the real Jean Grey, who it had been brought back to life again. In a last ditch attempt to calm the Phoenix, the Cuckoos used their powers to locate as many X-Men they could around the world. They combined their minds to show Jean and the Phoenix how much they were loved. The plan worked and Jean returned to the afterlife with the Phoenix in tow. Whilst the X-Men believed that the Phoenix had left them once more, no one was aware that a fragment later returned to Celeste, who absorbed it into herself. [X-Men: Phoenix -- Endsong #1-5]
After the recent disruptions to the teaching staff and the student body at the school, Cyclops decided to split the remaining students into teams. The Stepford Cuckoos were named as joint leaders of the Corsairs under the tutelage of Cyclops. Despite being forced to interact with the rest of the students more, the Cuckoos still kept their distance, often avoiding the numerous dramas the other teams were enduring. [New X-Men: Academy X -- Yearbook Special #1]
Nevertheless, that didn’t stop them from getting drawn into the adventures the X-Men were having, such as when the Brotherhood attacked the school. Whilst taking some time for herself 
and learning to play the piano, Mindee was forced to come to the aid of Gambit, who had previously been blinded. Acting as his eyes, she helped the Cajun take down Sabretooth, before using her telepathy to knock Avalanche out too. However, she met her match when she tried to take on Exodus and Black Tom Cassidy, both of whom had very tricky minds to manipulate. Fortunately, the other X-Men managed to hold them back long enough for Mindee to mindwipe the villains into forgetting the location of the school, just before they were sucked into another dimension. [X-Men (2nd series) #163-164]
Tragedy struck the school when M-Day hit and most of the mutant population lost their powers. 
The Cuckoos managed to keep theirs but the school was in chaos and they could barely function due to the enormous psychic turmoil going on. Emma managed to get them to focus long enough to put all the students to sleep so that the X-Men could figure out what was going on. The enemies of the X-Men saw the weakened mutant race and seized the opportunity to wipe them out once and for all. Reverend Stryker and his Purifiers stormed the school one night, killing anyone they came across. The Cuckoos were alerted to the situation by the screaming and came across Prodigy. When the group ran into Stryker himself, who proceeded to shoot at them, Prodigy leapt in the way to save the girls’ lives. Fortunately, he survived his injuries, earning the Cuckoos gratitude in the process. [New X-Men (2nd series) #20, 27]
In the time that the girls had been at the school, John Sublime had crossed the X-Men’s path and been defeated when he took them on. The Cuckoo's true origins never came to light in the confrontation but that was all going to change soon enough. To complicate matters, though, the fragment of the Phoenix Force that had taken residence within Celeste had seemingly spread to the other girls too and was starting to make them act even stranger than before. One night, it began to speak to them and made them fly up into the sky, a power which they had never displayed before. Alarmed by the sudden change, Emma Frost tried to use her powers to see what was going on with the girls but they forcibly rejected her advances, as they still did not trust her. Emma tried a different tactic and left the Cuckoos to investigate the problem themselves, whilst relying on the fact they would turn to the other X-Men for help. Beast conducted test on the girls but he revealed to Celeste that he could not pick up anything out of the ordinary within their biology and attributed the flight to a secondary mutation. Mindee and Phoebe went for training sessions with Emma and Wolverine respectively, but the Phoenix residing inside the girls did not 
like being challenged. In unison, the girls seemingly lost control of themselves and joined together to create an enormous fire raptor in the sky. After a short skirmish, the Cuckoos flew off, leaving the X-Men fearful that the Phoenix had returned.
In a surprising turn of events, whilst the X-Men were fighting the Three-in-One, Esme and Sophie crawled out of their graves. Still in a decomposing state, they made their way to Cerebro and located their sisters, who were just as surprised to discover them alive. Whilst they weren’t completely aware of Sublime’s ultimate plan, Esme and Sophie realized that they had a greater purpose in the grand scheme of things and tried to explain this to their sisters. Their chat was cut short by Wolverine, who attacked the “zombie Cuckoos” and cut off Sophie’s arm. The two girls escaped but when Wolverine inspected the arm, he discovered nano-circuitry embedded within the flesh and bones.
The Three-in-One flew to the location of the World and broke into it, surprising Jake Oh, the SHIELD agent in charge of guarding the place. By now, Phoebe had given into her instincts and 
somehow knew where to go in the maze of the World. Celeste was still rather unsure of what was going on but the other two just mocked her for having a crush on Jake. Making their way deep into the facility, they discovered a hidden laboratory which opened up when Phoebe touched a panel. John Sublime’s face appeared on a screen and welcomed them home, whilst revealing hundreds of other tubes with clones of the girls within. Phoebe suddenly became wary of the whole situation, but Mindee was now seeing things more clearly. She approached a strange pod and claimed that the Phoenix inside them felt wrong and all of the technology around them felt right. Before they could resist, Mindee and Phoebe were both dragged into separate pods and plugged into the network of cable and tubes that ran through the facility. Celeste, afraid of the machines as well as the Phoenix, fled to Jake Oh and tried to convince him to shoot her.
Emma Frost and the other X-Men soon arrived in pursuit, discovered the lab and also how the Cuckoos had been created. Celeste broke down and confessed she feared manifesting the Phoenix, because she knew she wouldn’t be able to control it. Emma offered to essentially lobotomize her to stop the Phoenix, and the young girl broke down, grateful for the help. Before Emma could do so, though, she was knocked out by the machines, causing Celeste to give in to the Phoenix’s rage inside her. She tried to resist the power but the Phoenix took over and attacked the X-Men, as well as many of the tubes containing her cloned sisters.
Meanwhile, Esme and Sophie found their way to the World and reluctantly joined forces with the X-Men, as they did not want to burn away with the rest of the planet. Together with Emma, the zombie Cuckoos attacked Celeste, but were unprepared for how powerful she was now. Celeste shrugged off the telepathic intrusion whilst restoring her sisters’ bodies to full health again. Celeste was beginning to see things from the Phoenix’s point of view, but Emma pointed out that it had killed hundreds of her sisters already. Hearing this, Sophie realized the Phoenix always comes to burn away things that don’t work, and that it was there to burn them away. Sublime had created the clones to wipe out the mutant race and the Phoenix wouldn’t allow it. In another fit of rage, Celeste incinerated Esme and Sophie and set off to find her other two sisters.
Emma had discovered that the machines at the facility needed three of the girls acting as a local point to channel the rest of the clones’ power. With Mindee and Phoebe already patched into the machines, Emma allowed herself to also be connected, as they girls came from her DNA. Together, Emma, Phoebe and Mindee attacked Celeste telepathically and disconnected the part of her brain that housed the Phoenix, finally stopping her rampage. Unfortunately, Sublime had a backup plan and the machines forcibly hooked themselves into Celeste and drew the Phoenix out of her. It placed a fragment of the Phoenix in each of the hundreds of clones and then triggered 
another mutation by turning the hearts to diamond, trapping the Phoenix within. Acting as the focal points for the army of clones, the Three-in-One became the Thousand-in-One and unleashed the might of the Phoenix on the X-Men.
Still resisting the Phoenix and the machines despite everything, Celeste passed on a message to Emma that they should destroy all of the cables and technology around them. The plan worked as the X-Men began destroying everything they could, causing the girls to weaken dramatically. Phoebe, still corrupted by the Phoenix’s influence, used the last of her energy to disrupt the power supply to the facility, causing it to detonate. Celeste managed to use the remaining power within her to save everyone, but the Phoenix was displeased with the outcome. It took over Celeste once again before destroying the hundreds of clones and reclaiming its fragments from each of them. Though it had achieved what it went there to do, instead of flying off it chose to split itself into three and inhabit Mindee, Phoebe and Celeste. The girls locked it within their hearts and turned their hearts to diamond, numbing the effect of the Phoenix but also condemning themselves to feeling nothing ever again. [X-Men: Phoenix -- Warsong #1-5]