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Scott Lobdell (plot), Ben Raab (script), Carlos Pacheco (pencils), Art Thibert (inks), Richard Starkings & Comicraft/EM (letters), Chris Lichtner, Aron Lusen & Liquid Graphics (colors), Bob Harras (editor & editor in chief)
After a brief battle the X-Men and Shang-Chi enter into a temporary truce with Sebastian Shaw, who secretly is handed Moira McTaggert‘s legacy virus data by Rory Campbell. Cannonball follows a mysterious rickshaw driver to the Fujikawa company. Later the X-Men invade the same company since they think it has the Elixir Vitae. They find the Kingpin waiting for them.
The X-Men and Shang-Chi have just been attacked by a group of four cyborg-enhanced ninjas: Bludgeon, Katana, Fist, and an unnamed fourth. They are employed by Sebastian Shaw and are trying to stop them from getting to his base. After battling for a time, the X-Men neutralize their attackers and start questioning one of them. Sebastian Shaw suddenly appears on the scene; it is the first time that the X-Men have seen him since hearing of the reports of him having been killed by his son Shinobi. He mocks Jean over past encounters with both her (X-Man 25) and Phoenix II. She gets angry enough to attack him with a tk-bolt. True to his power to absorb energy, Sebastian emerges from the wreckage stronger than ever. Storm suggests they discuss the situation somewhere else away from onlookers. Shang-Chi notices that Cannonball slipped away shortly before Shaw’s appearance, yet the other X-Men do not seem to be alarmed. Sam, it turns out, has followed a suspicious rickshaw; a few blocks away it is taken aboard a truck of Fujikawa Enterprises. Soon the other X-Men are at the Hong Kong branch of the Hellfire Club. Cyclops and Phoenix sit outside and talk about the problems in the world lately. Inside the building, Shaw confirms to Storm, Logan and Shang-Chi that he wants the Elixir Vitae to find a cure to the Legacy Virus and control its production. He claims to have altruistic motives as well as personal ones. Shang-Chi explains how his father claimed that the elixir would grant immortality, yet he died. Shaw leaves and secretly meets up with Rory Campbell, who is a regular resident of Moira MacTaggert’s island laboratory in Scotland. Rory gives Shaw a disk containing all information on the Legacy Virus that Moira has. He knows he is making a deal with a villainous man, but he believes that a possible cure would be worth his betrayal. Soon, the X-Men and Shang-Chi infiltrate the headquarters of Fujikawa Enterprises, where Shaw thinks the Elixir is. Cannonball is also there, due to his earlier sneaking around. He thinks he has entered unobserved, but he ends up running into none other than Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of crime. Later the other X-Men and Shang-Chi enter and discover who their adversary is for themselves.
Cannonball, Cyclops, Phoenix IV, Storm, Wolverine (all X-Men) Shang-Chi, material artist Dr. Rory Campbell, Excalibur ally Sebastian Shaw (Hellfire Club III) Bludgeon I, Fist, Katana, cyberninjas working for Shaw Kingpin
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