Sham takes Quiver to a music festival. The group performing is “the Disinterred.” Quiver doesn’t like being out of the Archive because they are dealing with heavy problems there. Quiver isn’t happy to be in such a large crowd, but Sham calms him down, because they are surrounded by nothing but jerries.
Quiver asks what the history behind these “jerries” are. Sham knows that they have been following the Desinterred for several decades now throughout the sand. Sham also mentions that, after their plane went down in the Rockies in the thirties, it was one of the first generation of jerries who salvaged what remained of their bodies, and gave the band the Deathlok treatment so that they could continue their tour.
The entire public puts on headgears, so that they can experience the concert to their own preferences. The Disinterred make their impressive entrance and begin to sing their songs. Suddenly, one of the singers is attacked from behind and falls on the ground. Quiver first believes that it’s part of the show, but soon finds out otherwise because… the Undead strike again!
Sham recognizes the villains from their earlier encounter, but can’t believe when she sees that Tim is with them! Security drones warn the Undead to leave immediately or they will get arrested. Tim isn’t impressed by it and destroys the drones using his powers.
Quiver uses his powers to clear a path through the crowd so that Sham can get to Tim. The plan works and Sham asks Tim what he thinks he is doing. Tim hesitates and seems to recognize Sham, but is confused. Tim slaps Sham in the face, warning her that he isn’t responsible for his actions.
The Graverobber enters, and offers the entire crowd to join him and his cause, or else they will die. The Graverobber explains to the panicking crowd that before they can join him they will have to go through some tests first. The first test is to bring the butcher Zail Haddad to him, whom the Graverobber knows is hiding in Halo City. The Graverobber wants Zail within the day, or else he’ll kill everyone in Halo City! The Graverobber and the Undead teleport away, leaving a startled crowd behind, but not before killing the entire Disinterred band. Some of the crowd thinks that the entire thing was part of the show, but Sham and Quiver know better and go to warn the other X-Men about this.
They go to Morphine’s tower, where they tell the entire story. Krystalin and Meanstreak try to trace the Undead, but fail. The X-Men can’t believe that Tim is still alive. Sham isn’t sure if “alive” is the correct word to describe Tim’s current condition. Morphine refuses to let his city be destroyed, and now the X-Men also know why Shakti’s father was hiding in the city: he was running away from the Graverobber.
Shakti and her father enter the room. Zail sarcastically congratulates Morphine on putting him out of business. Zail knows it will take him years to re-start his genetic marketplace. Shakti tells her dad that, if he wants to go through with those plans, he will have to do it without her, because she refuses to be a part of exploiting on humans. That’s why she left home ten years ago.
Zail finds his daughter to be a disappointment. He knows that Shakti had the potential to be one of the greatest bioengineers to ever life on the planet. He hates to see Shakti wasting her talents like this. Meanstreak tells Zail to stop talking about Shakti like that, or else he’ll make him pay for it.
Meanstreak hasn’t forgotten how Zail’s men raided poor neighborhoods to collect organs and tissue donors to supply the rich chain. Zail only knows that he gave the poor people he used a purpose in life, which in his eyes they didn’t have before he took them off the streets. Shakti doesn’t want to discuss that now and instead is more interested in finding out why the Graverobber is after her father.
Zail begins to explain. He claims that his business didn’t involve preying on human frailty. He says that his company, the Golden Harvest Corporation profited by maximizing the human potential. Zail commanded his employees to take the terminally ill people away from the streets.
Later on, he augmented them in cybernetically, in order to perform toxic clean-up operations where robots were technically or financially too expensive to use. Zail remembers how during one unfortunate mishap in a Sanjuan Biowaste transment plant, he lost a crew of almost two dozen cyborgs. The lone survivor, Garth Simenon, blaimed Zail for the disaster and the loss of his friends.
When Garth crawled out of the plane wreck, it turned out that he was a mutant, whose latent powers had surfaced as a result of the accident, and he had the ability to reanimate dead tissue. He became the Graverobber, and resurrected a handful of his now dead companions and formed an army with them. Together, they sought out and destroyed Zail’s company, and most of New Jersey’s bioprocessing factories as well. It was at that time that the graverobber found a quartet of some long dead mutant corpses in Zail’s factory, and decided to form the Undead.
Meanstreak wants to know if some of them are truly X-Men of the 20th century. Zail denies that, because none of the bodies he uses date prior 2040. But the Undead truly are all alpha-classed mutants, and utterly dangerous, like the X-Men found out first-handed. And ever since Doom shut Zail’s company down, the Graverobber followed Zail up until there.
Morphine wants to know what Zail wants from them. Sympathy? Zail says that, when he learned that his daughter had such a high position in Halo City, considering the security, he had hoped that she would be able to put the past behind them and grand him asylum. After all, Zail says, they are family. Shakti doesn’t know what to say.
Meanwhile in the Chicago Reserve, Murdock warns his boss, Herod, that he has a call on the omega line. Herod hopes that it’s important, or else Murdock will pay for it. A holographic image of Morphine materializes. Morphine laughs with Herod’s base, who isn’t impressed by the man.
Herod wants to know why he shouldn’t kill Morphine, like he did to Indigo Eshun recently, and all the other members of Doom’s former Black Cabinet as well. Morphine promises Herod that the line they are using is secure. Morphine also informs Herod that his Brain plan failed, and was destroyed. Though it didn’t leave Morphine without a little headache. Herod claims that Morphine only survived the attack because Herod’s attention was required elsewhere, but next time Morphine won’t be so lucky.
Morphine offers Herod to make a deal. He wants to give Herod the Graverobber, in exchange for his life. Morphine explains to Herod what the Graverobber’s powers are, and Herod is interested.
Later, Morphine goes to talk to Shakti. He tells her that the X-Men are wasting their time trying to track the Undead in Halo City. Shakti asks Morphine to stop bothering her. Morphine says that the Graverobber is a smart man, and probably is in Halo City, but hiding. They need to draw him into the open. Shakti won’t endanger her father, no matter how many people suffered in his bioshops.
Shakti doesn’t want to put any life in danger just so that they can defeat an enemy. It’s not the way the X-Men work. Morphine calls her foolish and walks out of the computer room.
Meanwhile, somewhere else, a gigantic body stands up from its former ashes. It’s confused, but tries to maintain its balance. Suddenly, it’s grabbed from behind by La Lunática! Luna isn’t in a good mood and asks who her adversary is. The creature turns around, and explains to Luna that he is… Gunnar Heywood! Luna releases him, and Gunnar shows her his now synthezoid body.
Gunnar knows that he has looked better, but explains that after forty years of recreational chemical indulgence, his doctor handed him a terminal notice, so Gunnar traded the original model for a techno-synthetic update on an alien robot, which was called the Recorder. Now, Gunnar is a walking field recorder linked around the clock to an Infonet satellite. Luna catches Tim’s scent and asks Gunnar if he has seen him here alive. Gunnar didn’t, but remembers the Graverobber performing some tricks on Tim to revive him.
Luna hates the fact that someone took the one man who actually means something to her, and even more hates to see that his abductors desecrated his body as well. She walks over to the table where Tim layed on and finds a blueprint of a building. Gunnar asks Luna if she knows what building it is. Luna takes a closer look and she recognizes the place as the Spark. She explains to Gunnar that the Spark is the power plant that supplies energy to all of Halo City. She wonders what the Undead are interested in that.
Gunnar asks Luna to hold on, as he is downloading some late information from the Third Eye. Once that is completed, Gunnar reads the file and found out how the Undead made their public debut and killed the Disinterred, and how they made their treat towards Shakti’s father. He also finds out that if the Halo City people refuse to go into his demands, that the Graverobber will drain every ounce of life of the entire city.
Luna and Gunnar rush to the Spark and hope that they will make it in time. As the two go, they don’t notice that two mysterious, evil looking red eyes were watching them the whole time…
Meanwhile, the Undead have already made it to the Spark and the Graverobber, wishing that he can build his army of undead people. Tim believes that is wrong. The Graverobber grabs Tim by his throat, yelling at him that Tim has to obey him because he owns his life to him. Serpentina tries to stop the Graverobber, but the rest of the Undead hold her back. Luna and Gunnar arrive too, and Luna tells Gunnar to stay out of her way while she fights.
Tim agrees to work for the Graverobber, who releases Tim from his holding grip. Luna attacks the Graverobber at full rage, also surprising Tim with her presence. The Undead gather around their master, telling Luna that she has made a mistake coming here alone. Luna tells Tim to stay behind here and promises that she will get them out of here. Nicolai makes short work of the fight and knocks Luna out with one single punch. Arcadian asks the Graverobber if he wants Luna’s body undamaged for later resurrection. He confirms.
The Graverobber commands Tim to do his part of the plan, and put Halo City into darkness. Tim goes to stand into the middle of the Spark machine and powers up. While he does that, the Graverobber explains that Tim was of no use to him alive. His body simply would never be able to withstand the hundreds of thousands of volts, which are now flowing through his body. Pain and fear would have definitely killed him. That’s why the Graverobber had Serpentina bring Tim to him: the dead have no limits. Now, Tim has become a human transformer, and holds the light and warmth of the city hostage. Without power, Halo City’s dream of harmony will evaporate into anarchy and destruction, and then the city will be for the Graverobber’s taking!
The entire city fades black. Morphine Somers enters Zail Haddad’s room. Morphine wants to hand Shakti’s father over to the Graverobber, like the villain wanted. Zail tries to defend himself, telling that his daughter would never approve it. Morphine tells Zail that Shakti doesn’t run this city, but he does. Morphine powers up, and tells Zail to come with him…
