Aboard their small space-yacht, the New Mutants listen as Admiral Dupen’th tells the young mutant heroes of Earth that they have bribed a space-port officer in an attempt to “buy” landing authorization. He announces that the punishment for this offence is immediate termination, before ordering one of his officers to lock onto the New Mutant’s ship and destroy them.
The New Mutant’s alien member Warlock alerts his dishevelled friends to the screen, where a trans-spatial annihilator is pointed at them. ‘A bribe? We blew that one, big time!’ Sam Guthrie a.k.a. New Mutants co-leader Cannonball exclaims to his best friend and teammate Bobby “Sunspot” DaCosta, who asks what they are going to do now.
The mysterious alien Gosamyr reminds her new friends that her family is captive on that planet, so they have to save them. Angrily, Gosamyr leaps from where Cannonball and Sunspot are looking after her, and points a finger accusingly at Danielle “Dani” Moonstar a.k.a. Mirage, the other co-leader of the Mutants, and exclaims that they cannot be killed, before telling Dani that this is all her fault, ‘You and your special mutant power!’
Upset, Dani tells Gosamyr to shut up, as it was a mistake, reminding Gosamyr that she has already told her how her power works – that she can materialize people’s greatest fear or desire, but that she never knows what they are going to be until she sees them, at the same time as everyone else. Dani asks how she was supposed to know that the official’s greatest wish wasn’t for their landing papers, or that a bribe was what he wanted the most.
‘Honestly, Dani! We followed Spyder back to his home base!’ someone exclaims, backed up by someone else who remarks that even Dani can’t be naïve enough to imagine that anyone on a world where Spyder rules could ever want anything but riches. Warlock listens to the countdown, and tells his friends that this is not the time to fight, pointing out that from the planet below comes the voice of someone announcing their destruction.
But down on the planet the alien is about to fire the destruction beam, when he is frightened by the sudden appearance of Spyder, who also tells him to wait. Spyder informs the alien that the space yacht carries cargo belonging to him, therefore it can land under his authorization. The alien replies that he understands and will see to it at once.
The alien contacts the large spaceship hovering above the planet and informs them that there has been some…”confusion” concerning the clearance papers of the space yacht, but that confusion has now been eliminated, so landing has been authorized, and they must release the space yacht from their hold immediately. The alien on the planet apologizes to the occupants of the space yacht and a tractor beam takes hold of the yacht, bringing the New Mutants and Gosamyr down to the planet.
Inside the yacht, Gosamyr exclaims that she doesn’t like this, that the aliens wouldn’t just release them like this. Dani suggests that Gosamyr admit it, ‘You saw how well my power worked and you were jealous!’ she exclaims. Dani adds that it was just a mistake after all, before turning away from everyone, and crying, she thinks to herself that her head hurts so much – aching, like it is going to burst!
Miles below, on the planet, the alien warlord Spyder is carried about by servants, one of whom remarks that even if Lila Cheney, who is chained and walking behind them, is all that is reported, can she ever pay back the cost in acquiring her? Spyder remarks that projected figures show Lila’s profitability surpassing his costs in an average of 2.78 hours of actual teleportation time. ‘Big deal long-distance teleporter! Ha!’ a small alien exclaims, before shouting ‘Teleport over this!’ and sticking a leg out to trip Lila over.
Lila falls to the ground and the aliens all laugh. One of them remarks that she cannot use her powers because of the device on her head, a mind-blocker. Lila calls the aliens “slime” and tells them to do their worst, boasting that the New Mutants will come and rescue her – ‘And destroy you!’ ‘Those children?’ Spyder asks, before telling Lila that she must be aware those children already belong to him. He reveals to Lila that Gosamyr is with those children and is making fools of them all – which is why he has forbidden “shes” here.
‘Gosamyr and I are “shes”!’ Lila snaps back, to which Spyder replies ‘No longer – you are now “its” – product…merchandise!’
An alien motions to the sky, pointing out the New Mutants’ ship, and asks Spyder if he wants them to acquire the New Mutants for him. ‘Patience!’ Spyder orders, before muttering that an 87.3 percent chance of injury to him exists in frontal attack. Spyder remarks that even without Gosamyr’s disruptive influence the New Mutants are impetuous – everything they feel is to excess, while he feels nothing unless he chooses to feel. He decides that they will wait safely in his palace and let Gosamyr lead them to him.
Spyder declares that he will then capture the New Mutants and drain off their excessive emotions to savor…as he savors now the sweet scent of satisfaction. ‘For they are here…and soon they will be mine!’
The hatch to the space yacht opens and Dani quickly exits the small ship, clutching her throbbing head, she exclaims that she cannot stand it in there with Gosamyr a moment longer. But as Danielle runs through the complex where the yacht has landed, an alien shouts ‘Got one of them!’, exclaiming that they didn’t even have to swarm the ship. He shoves Mirage to the ground and a pink alien with big yellow eyes on either side of its head remarks that Mirage is scrawny and asks what they want with “it” anyway. A bear-like alien tells “bug-eyes” that Spyder wants “it” so “it” must be worth a fortune. ‘And if it’s worth a fortune – it’s going to be ours!’ another alien boasts.
Inside the space yacht, Gosamyr clings to Cannonball while Wolfsbane approaches Cannonball and points out that now they are here they better plan how they can rescue Lila, she is his girlfriend after all. ‘You want her back as fast as possible – don’t you, Sam?’ Gosamyr remarks ‘Why, that’s very noble of Rahne, isn’t it, Sam dear?’ Gosamyr reminds everyone how Dani pulled from Rahne’s mind what she wanted the most, or rather who – Cannonball. ‘Not that I blame her!’ Gosamyr adds as she rubs a hand across Sam’s chest.
Sunspot glares at his friend while Rahne begins crying, exclaiming that it isn’t true, that it was a mistake. Sunspot pulls Gosamyr away from Cannonball, declaring ‘Yeah? Well, lover boy, we’ve landed!’ Bobby then tells Sam that he better figure out a way to rescue Lila, because he is going to help Gosamyr from now on. Warlock peers over his friends and tells them that they are not behaving like themselves, so he believes something is wrong. ‘Self thinks that Gosamyr is wrong!’ Warlock declares.
Cannonball declares that he thinks it is Bobby who is all screwed up. ‘That dude better watch his step or I’ll watch it for him!’ Warlock goes over to Illyana “Magik” Rasputin asks her to help the others, ‘Gosamyr has made them mad!’ he exclaims. Illyana reminds Warlock that he knows how she fell into Limbo and was raised with demons, to which Warlock exclaims that Magik gained control of Limbo and used her teleportation power to escape – so can she not help them escape this madness?
Magik replies that may have escaped, but now Limbo has grown beyond her conscious control…’and my kingdom and I are inseparable!’ Illyana exclaims that she can feel Limbo’s evil building, ready to burst out and destroy whatever it touches – so the best way she can help everyone is by keeping away from them – as far away as possible. Warlock exclaims that to focus on evil will only make evil grow, so he leaves Illyana, deciding to go and find Mirage, as he knows she does not like Gosamyr, so perhaps she will help him.
But Dani is currently busy fighting off her assailants. ‘Get back, you turkeys! I’ve been trained b the best…and I’ve got other weapons than feet!’ she exclaims as she kicks the aliens on to each other. Dani realizes that the odd-looking aliens seem to be into profit motive, so she will see what it is they want the most, and plucks from one of their minds their heart’s desire, which she focuses her power on to make solid. ‘The Bauble of Babel!’ one of them exclaims as he looks at the alien with the strange eyes, declaring that it wasn’t lost on their last caper after all. ‘You stole it!’ The two other aliens attack their friend, while Dani manages to slip away.
Running down an alley, Mirage exclaims that she must have been crazy, ‘What can I have been thinking – leaving the ship…wandering around a strange port no matter how badly my head ached?’ Dani decides that she should get back to her teammates, when suddenly she runs into another group of aliens. ‘There is comes now!’ ‘Get it!’ the aliens shout.
Back inside the space yacht, ‘You’re cruising for a bruising, Bobby! I’d hate to have to bust your tail!’ Cannonball exclaims. Rahne is slumped over on the ground, telling Sam that it wasn’t like Gosamyr said, it really was a mistake. Sitting perched on her ledge still, Illyana thinks ‘Poor little Rahne. She’s pouring her heart out and Sam doesn’t even hear’. Magik decides that Warlock might be right – perhaps focusing on evil does make it worse! Illyana admits that it all seems so overwhelming, so thinks that perhaps it is just as overwhelming for Rahne, and teleports down to her. Illyana recalls that Rahne has stood by her, and tells her that she knows how she feels. ‘You don’t! You can’t! Just leave me alone!’ Rahne replies as she transforms into a wolf.
Magik tells Rahne that she cannot hide from the world in her wolf form, for to focus on misery just makes it grow. Warlock enters the bridge area with urgency, telling his friends that he has looked all over the ship but cannot find Mirage – and the exterior hatch is open. Even though she is in her wolf form, Rahne’s concern is easy to see, and she suddenly transforms into half-wolf-half-girl as she exclaims that she just felt Dani through the psychic link Dani shares with animals, and points out the window. ‘She’s surrounded by alien attackers! Out there!’ Rahne declares. Sunspot wonders why Dani is out there in the first place and exclaims that they have to go, to which Magik points out that they can get there faster if she teleports them, so she does….
….but first, they must stop over in Limbo! ‘There she is!’ ‘Time is close!’ ‘Get her!’ several demons cry as they see their mistress. The New Mutants leap into battle against the demons and Sam remarks that he wishes there was some way they could teleport from place to place without stopping via Limbo. ‘So do I Sam!’ Illyana replies, before pointing out that her Stepping Discs are as much a part of Limbo as she is, and with that she transforms into the Darkchilde, as she pulls her Soul Sword toward her, which also covers her in the eldritch armor.
‘Darkchilde has drawn sword!’ ‘Get back!’ the demons shout. Wolfsbane turns to Illyana and asks her to leave the sword here, for it will keep at least one spot in Limbo free of those vile creatures. Rahne adds that it only affects things that are magic anyway, so they will not need it on Spyder’s world.
Speaking of which, the original aliens that Mirage was battling have re-discovered her, ‘Hey! Look! While we been fighting each other…the Grissom Gang got the “alien”!’ Indeed, Dani struggles in a big yellow alien’s arms.
Meanwhile, far away in New York State’s Westchester County, at Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. The School’s current headmaster, Magneto, stands solemnly, contemplating how his students have left yet again. He recalls how he allowed Sam to attend Lila’s concert – but the others were all restricted to the school grounds, except now they too are gone. ‘Where or on what hare-brained mission I dare not even guess!’
Suddenly, the Master of Magnetism’s computer sounds, and switching the screen on, Magneto is greeted by Emma Frost a.k.a. the glamorous White Queen, who informs Magneto, her White King in the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle, that her Hellions have reported an alien invasion at Lila Cheney’s concert. Emma adds that the media are trying to explain it away as special effects as usual. Magneto asks Emma what happened, to which the powerful telepath replies that some sort of monsters invaded the concert hall and carried Lila off, and there was a confused effort to stop them.
Emma tells Magneto that her students think the New Mutants were involved, and offers to use her equipment to scan for them, before warning Magneto that the New Mutants are running out of control. She suggests to him that he has to enforce discipline more stringently. Emma informs Magneto that there have been…disturbing…events that require their attention, so she is leaving for New York City immediately, and suggests that he joins her at the Hellfire Club.
Magneto declares that all he has ever wanted for mutantkind is peace and prosperity, and he had thought he found a better way to achieve his goal, eschewing his old, violent ways. He adds that he had hoped to find solace as teacher and protector of the young – only they refuse to be safe-guarded. Putting on his infamous helmet, Magneto boasts that if the New Mutants are on Earth, he will find them…and protect them actively – in the way he knows best!
But the New Mutants are not on Earth…they are in a distant star-system. At that very moment, the young super heroes leap out from Limbo and into the midst of Mirage’s battle. ‘Drop her you filthy things!’ growls Wolfsbane. The strange aliens encourage each other to get the New Mutants, but Warlock transforms himself into some sort of gun and begins firing at the aliens, shooting one of them who acts like nothing happened. ‘I’m invulnerable – you dig!?’ the alien shouts back.
Another alien calls Sunspot the ‘dark-skinned one’ declares that he will own it, but Sunspot punches the alien hard. The alien exclaims that they will test themselves in this ancient way, while another long gangly alien is suddenly thrust against a wall by Wolfsbane, and asks Wolfsbane why they seek to do violence to them as they are really gentle beings. ‘Heaven above shudders at your actions!’ the alien exclaims, only for Wolfsbane to tell the alien to save its breath, ‘Your actions speak loud of your intent!’ As this goes on, Gosamyr stands on the sidelines watching.
‘Crush! Mangle! Annihilate!’ a robot-like alien shouts as it approaches Magik. ‘Get back!’ Illyana cries, still in her eldritch armor, her Soul Sword suddenly appears in her hand, leaping to protect her as it always does when she is in danger. The robot/alien laughs at Magik’s sword, boasting that he is a high-tech critter and will crush her sword then crush her too. Magik raises her sword and exclaims that it was created by magick to combat magick, but that she can still put a dent in – suddenly, she stops mid-way through her sentence, as she put more than a dent in the creature, her sword cut the creature in half!
Magik is confused and asks the creature if it is powered by magick, to which the creature’s bottom half shifts its form and exclaims ‘I am now!’ before growing a face and poking its tongue out at Illyana and laughing. Illyana declares that it can’t have been magick, as her sword should have barely dented the creature, so why - how - did it happen?
Suddenly, Bobby tosses his opponent up into the air, and the strange creature that Illyana cut in half exclaims ‘I hungry!’ then swallows the alien whole. ‘Yum! Got more?’ Anguish overcomes Illyana who declares that she feels it, the curse - Limbo’s curse - has followed her even here, even though she did as Destiny said and left Earth, learned not to focus on evil. ‘I was in control! And now…this!’
The remainder of the aliens all begin running in different directions, scared of Magik. Cannonball tells Rahne to let her opponent go, believing that they will not bother them again. But at that moment, another alien grabs Gosamyr, exclaiming that this affair has thus far proved unprofitable, however he knows that Spyder will pay an emperor’s ransom for Gosamyr. ‘Oh, precious Gosamyr!’
Immediately, Cannonball and Sunspot both rush towards the alien who has run off with Gosamyr, and everyone ends up crashing into each other. The alien drops Gosamyr and runs off, while Sunspot turns to Sam and exclaims ‘You slammed me!’ ‘I slammed the alien, jerk! You just happened to be in the way!’ Sam snaps back at his best friend. Bobby then tells Sam to bug off, ‘I was protecting Gosamyr!’ ‘It’s a free country!’ Sam replies. ‘Not here it’s not!’ Bobby points out, before the two boys begin fighting.
Gosamyr goes over to Dani and Rahne and boasts ‘You see how they fight over me? This is the way it should be! It proves my value…and precedence over you…beyond any doubt!’ ‘Position?’ exclaims Rahne in disbelief, but Gosamyr just continues with her rant, declaring that she is the dominant female, so that they must obey her, and her first order if for them to rescue her family - now!
Warlock urgently goes over to Magik and alerts her to what is happening to the others. ‘See how Gosamyr affects them?’ he exclaims, before suggesting that there is a magick about Gosamyr that heightens their emotions and influences them. Warlock reveals to Magik that long ago he heard about creatures such as Gosamyr, but he hoped never to see one, as they are rare, mainly because they rarely allow others of their kind to survive.
Illyana asks Warlock if what he is saying is that Gosamyr pushed her to create that robot-demon, as she pushed all of the New Mutants into their own form of madness. Illyana decides that that must be Gosamyr’s plan, for what other answer can there be? The powerful young mutant rushes over to Gosamyr with her Soul Sword ready and exclaims ‘They’re my friends Gosamyr…my only friends and you’ve been manipulating them…attacking them!’ Her sword outstretched, Illyana can feel a magick of sort within Gosamyr, and slashes at the devious alien.
Suddenly, the unsuspecting New Mutants witness as Gosamyr screams, and transforms into her true form - a hideously revolting, enormous, twisted alien. The transformation does not last long, and Gosamyr passes out. Sunspot calls out to her, and the others all gather around her. Rahne exclaims that Illyana’s sword didn’t cut her, but wonders what that thing was. Sam quickly apologizes to Bobby for fighting with him, claiming that he doesn’t know what came over him.
Sunspot holds onto Gosamyr and asks Magik what she was thinks she was doing. ‘You know what your sword can do…what monsters it can evoke!’ Sunspot adds that Magik nearly killed Gosamyr. ‘It would have served her right if I had!’ Illyana snaps back in her own defense. ‘Don’t!’ Sam cries, and he, Mirage and Warlock all grab Illyana, holding her back from Sunspot and Gosamyr.
‘Fools! Don’t you understand what she was doing to you…what she’s doing to us all?’ Illyana asks her teammates. Rahne goes over to Illyana and exclaims ‘You saw it! It was the monster in her - you saw it…your sword revealed it!’ Rahne suggests that perhaps the sword made Gosamyr do it, like it made them fight each other. ‘Please…turn back…forget the Darkchilde!’
‘Be our friend again, Illyana!’ Rahne pleads. Illyana replies ‘All right…’ but as she tries to remove the eldritch armor from her, she finds that she cannot. ‘What do you mean?’ Sam asks. ‘Of course self-friend can…can’t you?’ Warlock exclaims. Dani asks if it is because of the monster, to which Rahne asks if that means Gosamyr was possessed and now Illyana is - or was Gosamyr really a monster? ‘No…not Gosamyr…look at me, Rahne. It’s me. I’m the monster!’ a weary Magik replies.
At that moment, a dazed Gosamyr sits up with the help of Sunspot and asks what happened. Angrily, Dani replies to Illyana’s comment about she being a monster as she glares at Gosamyr and exclaims ‘That’s not what it looks like from here, Illyana!’ Forlorn, Sam remarks that his Momma told him “Pretty is as pretty does…”. Mirage declares that even if Gosamyr isn’t really the monster that they saw, she is a monster if she can make them turn against each other.
Gosamyr exclaims that she doesn’t understand - ‘Isn’t that how everyone always behaves?’ she asks innocently. Warlock transforms himself into a caricature of Gosamyr, with a giant red circle and a cross through it around his face as he whispers that on Gosamyr’s world, among her treacherous kind, it is the way everyone behaves, or so he has heard. He declares that Gosamyr’s kind are very rare, and precious - and dangerous! Warlock suggests to his friends that they do not risk themselves in associating with her, that they should leave now and have nothing more to do with her, to which Rahne points out that they still have to rescue Lila.
Gosamyr and Sunspot embrace and Gosamyr reminds the New Mutants that her family are still in danger and that they promised to rescue them. Bobby smiles and tells Gosamyr that he knows, before revealing to her that the flaming monster - or whatever it was that the sword reveals, he sometimes feels like he has one inside of him too. Bobby turns to his teammates and tells them that it is not Gosamyr’s fault that she is the way she is. ‘You can’t blame people for their biology - or how their culture teaches them to behave!’ Bobby adds that if they help Gosamyr that might be able to teach her to behave better, then turn her powers to good.
An angry Magik, and confused Cannonball, a curious Warlock and a determined Mirage turn to face Sunspot and Gosamyr, and Magik asks why they should help Gosamyr, after all, it is partly her fault she is stuck this way. ‘I should have killed her!’ Illyana screams. Warlock agrees with Illyana’s dislike of Gosamyr, before asking ‘But is it not as self-friend-Sam’s Momma always says - that Darkchilde is as Darkchilde does?’
Magik replies that she isn’t even sure if that matters anymore, before assuring Warlock that she will not kill Gosamyr, despite how much she deserves it. Magik declares that, instead, they will take Gosamyr with them when they rescue Lila, as their prisoner, to lead them to Spyder’s palace - and after that, they will wait and see. Warlock asks Magik why they don’t just teleport to the palace, to which Magik replies that they dare not teleport, as her power depends on her control of the Stepping Discs, and those are part of Limbo!
Illyana reminds everyone that the Stepping Discs take her, all of them, to Limbo as part of every teleportation jump, and exclaims that Limbo’s power for evil is growing, even as it slips from her control. Illyana gasps that they need to rescue Lila now, more than ever, not just because she is their friend, but because she can teleport them home. ‘Because if we have to go through Limbo…I don’t think that it will let us leave!’
Shortly…Warlock has transformed himself into a transportation device and flies his teammates towards the sinister looking palace. Sunspot suggests they enter through the top, as there wont be as many guards up there. Someone exclaims that there are even bars up here, to which Bobby leaps onto a ledge and uses his incredible strength to rip them open. Warlock returns to his regular form and everyone starts making their way through the dimly lit chamber.
The New Mutants and Gosamyr make their way down some windy stairs, and Bobby, leading the way, exclaims that it feels like they have been climbing down forever, before motioning to all the gold and gems to the side. ‘It’s like a dragon’s hoard!’ Illyana exclaims. Dani remarks that it seems to be a pretty avaricious society, to which Sam adds that gold is all anybody seems to want here.
Rahne switches to her wolfen form to see if she can pick up a scent for Lila, and as she does, she races off ahead. Using her psychic link with Mirage, she urges her best friend to get the others to come quickly. The heroes do, and rush into a brightly lit chamber where Lila is being held in a strange contraption. There is a mighty rumble, and Gosamyr shouts ‘No! Run!’ - but it is too late, as a spider-like cage falls down above the six New Mutants. Spyder suddenly drops from the ceiling, ‘Welcome to my parlor!’ he grins, declaring that he has awaited their arrival with great eagerness. Spyder turns his attention to Gosamyr, snapping a collar on her neck he declares that he has Gosamyr to thank for delivering the New Mutants to him!
