Nightcrawler appears far above Doom’s castle, in great pain from the strain it took him to teleport two miles straight up. By the time he’s gathered his wits, his velocity means a port to the floor would still kill him on impact. Taking advantage of the tempest created by the imprisoned Storm, he catches an updraft, allowing him to slow his descent enough for a safe port – straight into the lake. Fighting the pain and cold, he makes a difficult swim to shore, and resolves to free his comrades before giving Doom a rematch.
Doom himself is being taunted by the infuriating Arcade, for losing an X-Man. The deposed ruler explains that his plan was to test the X-Men, they all have an escape route available to them, if only they can find it. Having ruined Arcade’s fun, he orders his guards to recapture Nightcrawler, and then worries about the unnatural weather.
Doom is not the only one worried. In NORAD’s Valhalla base, General Fredericks is sufficiently concerned to notify the President, while one of Doom’s own guards, hardened man that he is, admits to being spooked by the storm. His musings are interrupted when Nightcrawler’s daemonic visage suddenly appears at the window, stunning he and his comrade long enough for the German mutant to ‘port inside and take them out of action.
Colossus, meanwhile, believes he has finally figured the way out of his trap. The blasters lining the whirlpool only attack the heavier rocks, those the size of Colossus himself. To test his theory, he throws in a smaller piece, about the size of Peter in his human form and, sure enough, it gets through unscathed. Reverting to human and holding his breath, Peter swims down past the lasers, going as far as his air will last, before switching back to him armoured form and punching his way free.
Angel has worked out his own escape route. The lasers aren’t firing randomly, as he originally thought, but in an incredibly complex pattern. To escape, he simply has to fly this pattern perfectly, without any hesitation or slips – a lot, he thinks, like a Danger Room exercise. Using his well-honed manoeuvrability, he flies the gauntlet, only for the cell to explode behind him. Before he can get his bearings, however, he is swamped by a wave of water from Colossus’ cell.
Wolverine is desperately battling to hold on to his sanity, and remembers a day back when he worked for the Canadian government, the day he almost killed his best friends, James and Heather Hudson. He doesn’t know what set off that berserker rage, and now he worries that Hudson and Xavier’s efforts to cure his mania have failed, leaving him as much a danger to the X-Men as to their enemies. He considers staying still, avoiding any more lightshows and being sure of retaining his sanity, but quickly abandons this idea in favour of action. Hitting a wall, he unsheathes his claws, and slashes wildly at each surface the repellor fields knock him into, until eventually he hits something important, knocking out the anti-gravity system. Cutting loose from the cell, he notes the flooded corridor, and plans to find his fellow X-Men, but the strong smell of ozone makes him fear Storm is fighting for her life, and so he quickly rushes to her aid.
Breaking into Doom’s study, Wolverine wonders at why he can see Storm, but not pick up her scent. Doom orders the robot simulacrum to attack, and Wolverine wastes no time in trashing it – there’s no way a robot could fool his animal senses. Doom is not as easily defeated however, and a blast hurls Wolverine away. Before anyone can attack again, Nightcrawler appears above Doom’s head, and pulls down a tapestry to blind the tyrant. Doom does not give up fighting, but Wolverine quickly has his claws at the enemy’s throat, and threatens him – his life for Storm’s. Suitably cowed, Doom points at the living chrome statue, and gives the X-Men an orb that will reverse the process.
Storm’s claustrophobia had caused her to subconsciously gather power to herself in a desperate attempt to be free, and now that she is, that power has left her almost like the goddess she once claimed to be.
Doom takes advantage of Wolverine’s temporary shock to try and escape, but Storm has other ideas. With a single lightning bolt she manages to drain Doom’s energy reserves, causing the watching X-Men uncomfortable memories of Dark Phoenix. While they watch, Colossus arrives. Confused at what he sees, he decides to merely remove everyone from harm’s way, by removing the floor with them. His attempts to reason with Ororo fall on deaf ears, and she tosses him outside with the rest.
Angel arrives to find Doom and the other X-Men confronting the rogue Storm, and argues with Doom about his responsibility for the situation. Storm mocks them, saying they cannot face her power as a goddess, causing Colossus to make an impassioned plea for her to remember her humanity, and not lose the battle as Phoenix did.
The memory of her dead friend brings Ororo back to her senses, and she fights a battle to overcome both the tempest she has created, and the dark side of her soul that tempts her not to give up this awesome power. She wins both, but the effort leaves her drained, causing her to fall to earth. The watching Angel quickly swings in to save her from an untimely death.
Arcade is captured before he can beat a hasty retreat, and Storm once again asks Doom for the prisoner. Doom agrees, in exchange for an apology, which Arcade quickly gives over the threat of Wolverine’s claws. Doom apologizes for attacking them, blaming force of habit, and asks Storm if they can begin anew. She agrees to wipe the slate clean – they part as neither friends nor enemies.
1500 miles away, Lee and Scott awake on the island where they were stranded. In his half asleep state, Scott accidentally calls his companion Lee, but declines to talk about it. Before Lee can press the issue further, she is startled by the sight of a remarkable city about a mile offshore – a city that wasn’t there yesterday.
