Season 2 Episode 7

X-Men: Evolution Season 2 Episode 7

SubTitle: 
African Storm
Original Air Date: 
Sat 17th November 2001
Credits: 

Rick Ungar, Avi Arad, Stan Lee (executive producers), Boyd Kirkland
(producer), Nick DuBois (writer), Gary Graham (director)

Brief Description: 

Evan is failing both in school and in his training, and Ororo and Xavier
decide maybe he should go back to living with his parents, a decision Evan
accepts without a fight, as he thinks the others won't even care. Meanwhile,
as old enemy of Storm's back from her days in Africa, the Hungan, finds her
and decides to steal her spirit. He uses Ororo's claustrophobia and his own
black magic to frighten Ororo and give her nightmares, slowly breaking her
spirit to the point where the other X-Men think she's losing her mind. Then,
he kidnaps her and steals her broken spirit into his crystal. When the X-Men
arrive for the rescue, Spyke is the one to save the day by breaking the
Hungan's crystal, thus releasing Storm's soul. Storm gets rid of the Hungan
once and for all, and decides to give her nephew another chance at the
Institute, much to his delight.

Full Synopsis: 

Nighttime in a village somewhere in the wilderness of Africa, some sort of a
tribal ceremony is taking place around a large fire, with chanting, clapping
and drums. A man with skull-like face-paint, the Hungan, walks to the others
and the "music" stops. He says that after ten long seasons, the night winds
have finally answered his pleas - their wandering goddess has been found –
the power of the wind rider belongs to them – they will claim her once again
and Africa will be his! He takes a flaming stick from the fire and torches
the statue of their goddess – Storm.

In Bayville High, Jean is leaving the cafeteria with a lunch tray. She sees
Scott and Taryn sitting together and hurries back before they see her, but
she's too late – Taryn spots her calls her to sit with them. Jean says she
was looking for Duncan, and Scott says he hasn't seen him. Taryn and Jean
start talking about school, but then things get weird and awkward and Jean
gets up to look for Duncan. Evan skates by, taking her pizza and startling
her, and she responds by throwing him off his skateboard. He lands on a
table and slides across it, scattering all the food on himself and the other
students. Everybody's angry at him, including Principal Kelly.

In the Danger Room in the Institute, Storm is pacing around annoyed, waiting
for her nephew, who's late. Spyke rushes in and apologizes, saying he got
held up at school, and she says they better begin. He doesn't remember which
demo they're doing or what he's supposed to do, and she reminds him they're
doing Storm-catcher and he's supposed to protect her and get her across the
room safely – she's in his hands. They start the session, and metal
tentacles grab Storm. Spyke breaks them with his spikes, but then the floor
opens and he falls. He climbs up on his spikes, but when he gets out he
finds the corridor is filled with smoke. He asks his aunt where she is, and
she tells him to focus and remember his training – they covered smokescreens
just last week. He can't remember what to do, and she tells him to use his
ears. He finds his way to her, but then a box is closing in on her. In her
claustrophobia, she screams to Evan to get her out and he tries shooting
spikes at the box, but they break. Freaked out, Storm explodes the box with
lightning, breathing heavily. Evan apologizes, and she yells at him to just
go, leave. He tells her not to blame him for the box – he didn't activate it
– and she says neither did she, after Evan runs out.

Left alone in the dark, Ororo starts hearing whispers. She walks out looking
for Evan, but can't find him. The lights aren't working, and strange shadows
start running around, scaring her. A door opens by itself, but nobody's
inside and the shadows keep running. Terrified, she runs to the elevator,
the whispering and the shadows following her. She presses the button again
and again in horror, until the elevator finally arrives. She screams when
she sees someone inside, but it's just Hank. He apologizes for startling her
and asks if she's alright, and she says she doesn't know – she just had a
rough session with Evan and she's a little jumpy. Beast says that it seems
the school hasn't had an easy time with Evan either as he hands her Evan's
progress report that he found in the trash. He says he thought they were
reaching Evan, but Storm says she's having serious doubts that Evan is
reachable.

That evening, Risty drops Rogue off outside the mansion. Rogue thanks her
for the ride and starts walking in, when she starts hearing whispering and
chanting too. Scared, she hurries inside, locks the door and turns on the
alarm system.

That night in Storm's bedroom, Storm is having a nightmare. She yells in her
sleep for someone to go away and stay back, as mysterious mist enters
through the balcony and get near her bed and shadows of people are seen on
her sheets. She wakes up and sits in her bed, scared, with wide eyes, and
the shadows and mist vanish. Alarmed by her yelling, Logan breaks into the
room and pops his claws, looking for whoever frightened Ororo. Kitty too
phases through the wall, and Xavier wheels in. Ororo says that someone was
there, but Logan smells nothing. He retracts his claws and closes the
balcony door, and Xavier tells him to check the security system, just in
case. Logan and Kitty leave, and Ororo tells Charles she could swear there
was someone in there, but lately she's been so… Xavier completes her
sentence with the word "upset", and asks if it has something to do with
Evan. She answers maybe – Evan's been quite a handful lately – he's showing
less regard for school, training, even her. Xavier says he thinks they both
know what needs to happen here - it was clearly a mistake to remove Evan
from his parents - the best thing for Evan and for Ororo, is to have her
sister come and take him home. She says perhaps he's right. Out in the hall,
Evan is eavesdropping. Stunned, he walks away.

A little later, Ororo has decided to try to relax with a hot bubble bath.
She takes a bubble bath bottle from the medicine cabinet but when she closes
it, the image of the skull appears on the mirror. Scared, she drops the
bottle and it breaks as the image disappears.

Morning in the hall below, Professor Xavier sees a big dripping water spot
on the ceiling.

Back in Ororo's bathroom, Ororo is sitting down on the floor, so horrified
she didn't bother closing the water and it's filling the bathroom. Kitty
phases in and asks her what's wrong, but Ororo doesn't answer, as she's
still stunned. Outside, Xavier and Jean are waiting. Ororo opens the door,
still looking completely out of it, and Xavier and Jean ask her if there's
anything they can do. Ororo says she'll be fine and walks away, and Kitty
calls the professor in. Jean and Xavier enter, and Kitty shows them that the
medicine cabinet mirror is shattered, to their amazement.

In Evan's room, Evan is packing his clothes in a suitcase. Ororo enters and
realizes that he knows, and he asks her when his mother is coming. She
answers tomorrow morning, and he says it's no big deal – it's not like
anybody's gonna care. She says that's not true – he just never let any of
them get close to him. He says he's fine with it, though he's clearly not,
hands her his X-Man uniform, and goes to school so he can clear his locker.

In Bayville High, Rogue tells Risty that Ororo is seriously starting to lose
it - first she thinks someone's out to get her, and just this morning, she
wigs out in the bathroom. Risty says she feels kinda bad for her - as if she
doesn't have it tough enough dealing with the claustrophobia. Rogue is
shocked that Risty knows about that, but Risty covers, saying that it's just
gossip - someone at the Institute must have mentioned it. She leaves in a
hurry, leaving a stunned Rogue staring after her.

In the courtyard, Jean and Scott are also talking about Ororo. Jean says
she's really starting to worry, but Scott says Ororo's tough and she'll work
through it. Kitty shows up and asks them if they heard about Evan, but they
haven't. She tells them she just saw him emptying his locker - he's being
sent back to his parents.

Evan is emptying his locker. Kurt tells him not to give up without a fight,
and to go to the professor and ask for another chance, but Evan doesn't want
to listen and angrily asks Kurt why he even cares – it's not like they were
friends or anything. As he walks away, Kurt says he thought they were.
Scott, Jean and Kitty show up and offer Evan their help, but he says it's no
big deal and doesn’t understand why everybody keeps stressing him about it.

On the Institute grounds, Cannonball flies after a football, knocking over
Beast, who just passed by. Sam apologizes as the rest of the New Mutants
join them from their football game. Beast asks them if Storm is holding a
session out there in the fog, and Berzerker answers that Storm never showed
up, so they thought they'd improvise. Hank says that that's usually followed
by costly repairs, so that means he's their sub – and he's got just the
activity for them.

Beast and the New Mutants enter the Danger Room, and Beast tells the kids
that it's time to learn a valuable commodity – self-restraint. The goal is
simple; volleyball with no powers, and for him to survive a session without
a trip to the infirmary. The New Mutants divide to groups: Iceman, Jubilee,
Magma and Berzerker vs. Cannonball, Sunspot, Wolfsbane and Multiple. After
only a few seconds of game, Ray accuses Roberto of using his powers, as he
hit the ball very hard and it hit Ray. The New Mutants start fighting with
their powers, and Beast gets thrown out of the Danger Room through the
doors.

Nighttime in Ororo's room, Ororo is still awake on the balcony. She is
thinking about her time back in Africa, how she used her powers to help her
village, how they considered her a goddess, and how the Hungan was jealous
of her. Suddenly, a black feather floats down in front of her and lands by
her feet. Ororo is horrified to see a group of cobras at her legs, and flies
to the sky. From there, she spots her nephew leaving the mansion, and runs
after him. She calls him back, but he's too far away and disappears. Again
strange noises are heard, and an African man shows up, who Ororo recognizes
as Narumbo. He tells her she must turn back – it's not safe – and she asks
where Evan is. Despite him telling her that the Hungan has come for her, she
rushes after Evan.

Evan climbs over the Institute's gate, but then looks back and sees his aunt
chased by the African tribe people and the Hungan. Storm tries using her
powers against them, but someone shoots a poison dart at her and she faints.
Evan rushes to the professor's room and tells him somebody's got Ororo.

Storm wakes up in a very small room, and her claustrophobia kicks in again.
She screams, begs for someone to let her out, and hits the walls. She tries
lightning, like in the training session, but it doesn't work. The Hungan
opens a door above and with a chant, steals Ororo's broken spirit into the
crystal on his staff.

Nearby, on the docks, Wolverine is on his motorcycle, tracking Storm's
scent. He leaves the motorcycle and informs Xavier that he tracked her to
the docks. Xavier says they'll be right there, but Logan isn't waiting. He
walks around, and finds Narumbo. He takes Narumbo and angrily asks him where
Storm is, and Narumbo answers that he was trying to save her, as the rest of
the X-Men show up. Narumbo continues, saying that the Hungan is holding
Storm in a crate aboard a ship, but he has captured Ororo's spirit in his
staff for turning the village against him ten years ago and now he will use
her power to rule over Africa. The tribe people show up and attack and the
X-Men run in different directions, dodging poison darts and knives.
Wolverine uses his claws for protection, Spyke uses his bones, Nightcrawler
teleports, Jean uses telekinesis, and Shadowcat phases. As the battle
continues, Wolverine and Spyke manage to get to the boat, but the Hungan
tells them they're too late. Logan tries attacking him, but suddenly Ororo
shows up and attacks Logan with her powers. The rest of the X-Men show up
and Storm attacks them too. Remembering his training with his aunt, Evan
decides to act – despite the fog, he listens to the Hungan's chanting and
attacks him, hitting the crystal. Storm's spirit returns to her, and she
attacks the Hungan, blowing him away. She falls down, but Spyke jumps and
catches her. All of the African tribe people vanish in mist.

In the Institute, Evan walks to his mom and aunt and says he's ready to go.
His mother Vivian says they were just discussing that - Ororo feels that
things might be different if he was given another chance. Evan is very happy
and promises his aunt he'll be her number one pupil from that day forward.
The others walk in, and Evan tells them the good news. They think it's
great, and he says it's all because of how great he was in the battle. They
say it was just a lucky shot and leave, and he happily runs to the hall.

Featured Characters: 

Beast, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Professor X, Rogue, Shadowcat,
Spyke, Storm, Wolverine (all X-Men)
Berzerker, Cannonball, Iceman, Jubilee, Magma, Multiple, Sunspot, Wolfsbane
(all New Mutants)

African tribe people
Narumbo
The Hungan

Civilians, students
Principal Edward Kelly
Risty Wilde
Taryn Fujioka
Vivian Daniels

In Storm's flashback:
African tribe people
The Hungan
Young Ororo Munroe

Notes: 

The reason Risty knows about Storm's claustrophobia is because Risty is
really Mystique in disguise.

In the last scene, note that Evan's helmet appears on his head although he
didn't put it on.

Author: 
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