Archangel tries to enter his Manhattan apartment, but he can’t get in and hears Psylocke inside battling creatures from the Crimson Dawn dimension. He manages to go outside and fly in through the window, but only finds Psylocke calmly sitting as if nothing has happened. Archangel gets angry, but soon a small man named Gomurr appears and says they have a price to pay for the Crimson Dawn’s help in saving Psylocke’s life (lead-in to the Psylocke & Archangel Crimson Dawn LS).
Meanwhile, continuing from last issue, Storm is in a museum, where she is trying to save a child called Karima from Candra and a boy named Jamil, who has just said he is the Shadow King. Storm attacks with a blizzard and freezes him. Candra tries to tear off the ice to get at her heart-stone which Jamil possesses, but suddenly out of the ice bursts Juggernaut. He hurts Candra and chases Storm, who is fleeing with Karima. Both Storm and Candra think that Jamil uses the powerful gem to transform into the various villians presented, but they continue to fight amongst themselves for awhile, when Cable suddenly appears and offers Storm help. Ororo realizes something is not right, as the various images can’t have been conjured up Jamil as he has no knowledge of these people. Granted he could pull them from Storm’s mind, but then why create illusions of people helping Storm. Ororo comes to the conclusion that it is actually Karima who has a mutant power to give form to people’s desires, and everyone from Jamil to Cable has been a manifestation of that. She tells Karima to stop.
Meanwhile some blocks away, the other X-Men arrive looking for Storm. Suddenly after passing around a corner Phoenix finds herself alone, no Logan, no Scott not even a single person on the streets. Then as quick as it happened everythings back to normal. Wolverine notes that Jean is disturbed by something, but aiding Storm is first priority right now.
Back at the fight, all illusions ended and Karima is in tears. She only performed as her (and Storm’s) old mentor Achmed asked. The leader of the egyptean thieves was very clever and thought of a clever way to hide Karima’s mutant powers of giving form and function to desires. Jamil, a manifestation of Karima’s own desire for companionship, was also influenced by Candra’s desire to find the gem with her life-force. Angrily Candra attacks once more, but surprisingly Storm simply throws the heart-stone towards her. Yet, before she can catch it, it is destoyed by Cyclops‘ optic beam. With the life-force carrying gem destroyed Candra perishes and vanishes away. Storm explains that she knew the X-Men had just arrived and counted on Scott backing her up. Ororo then leaves to take Karima home.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, Sebastian Shaw plots to retake control of the Hellfire Club from his son Shinobi.
