INFERNO BABIES

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Last Updated: 
12th May 2019

Introduction

Orphaned and kidnapped, all to be used in a demonic spell, thirteen babies were saved by the combined forces of the X-Men, X-Factor, New Mutants and some young mutant trainees. Afterwards, the heroes thought the babies were assigned by authorities to be cared for by loving families. The reality, though, ended up being much more horrific and tragic.

First Appearance: X-Terminators #2
All Appearances: X-Terminators #2-4, X-Factor (1st series) #36-38, 40, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #240-242, New Mutants (1st series) #71-72, New Mutants (3rd series) #15-21
Roster: Alex, Bob, Face, Loca, Maw, Russel, Scab, Shauna, Timothy, Toko, Trista
Associates: General Ulysses, Doctor Noc, numerous unnamed soldiers

Before

  • Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor had a baby named Nathan Summers. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #200]
  • Cyclops left Madelyne and Nathan when he learned that his first love, Jean Grey, was alive and well, having previously thought to have been deceased. [X-Factor (1st series) #1]
  • Magik had become ruler of Limbo and often used her mutant teleportation power to traverse between Limbo and Earth, where she was a member of the New Mutants.
  • Two of Magik’s demon servants, Sym and N’Astirh, decided to overthrow Magik and invade Earth in the process. Sym discovered a spell that would permanently hold one of Magik’s portals open, allowing the demon hordes from Limbo to travel to Earth. Sym trapped the New Mutants in Limbo, whilst N’Astirh went to Earth to prepare for the spell. The spell itself required thirteen powerful infants [X-Terminators #1]

Chronology

X-Terminators #2

A baby, Timmy, was asleep in his bed when demons crept into his room. His parents were killed when the discovered the creatures and Timmy was abducted.
Another infant, Russel, was kidnapped whilst his brother took him for a stroll in the park.
They were returned to N’Astirh’s base, along with three more babies, bringing the total to five. 

X-Terminators #3, New Mutants (1st series) #71

Five more babies were located and brought to N’Astirh, allowing him to enact the first part of the spell that will hold the portal between Limbo and Earth open. A young group of mutants called the X-Terminators confronted N’Astirh but he defeated them before they could save the babies. N’Astirh ordered his minions to locate three more mutant babies, including Nathan Summers.
N’Astirh used the ten babies he had to cast a spell, just as Magik teleported from Limbo. The babies were suspended high in the sky, trapped in an inverted pentagram made of energy that acted as a portal, allowing the demon army to fly through.

X-Terminators #4, New Mutants (1st series) #72

The babies were stuck in the pentagram as the New Mutants and X-Terminators worked furiously to save them. In the end, one of the X-Termintors, Wiz Kid, disrupted the device N’Astirh used to cast the spell. With the spell broken, the babies were freed and the young heroes caught them before they fell. 

X-Factor (1st series) #35

Tracking down Nathan Summers to an orphanage in Alaska, N’Astirh’s minions discovered Jean Grey and Cyclops battling against Nanny and the Orphan Maker. Whilst they were more interested in the fight, the heroes didn’t notice the demons slip in and steal Nathan, along with all the other babies there. 

Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #240-242, X-Factor (1st series) #36-38

Learning that she was a clone of Jean Grey, Madelyne gave herself over to her dark side fully. N’Astirh fulfilled his end of the bargain by handing Nathan over to her. Madelyne decided to sacrifice Nathan and the remaining babies to complete N’Astirh’s plan, but she was stopped by X-Factor and the X-Men. Afterwards, X-Factor were left in possession of thirteen mutant babies. 

X-Factor (1st series) #40

Nanny and the Orphan Maker set their sights on the babies and attacked X-Factor in a bid to get them. X-Factor managed to defeat the villains and the babies were handed over to Freedom Force, a mutant team operating for the government. 

In-Between

  • After the events of Inferno, Magik was reduced to her child form once more, where she later contracted the Legacy virus and died. A few years later, she was resurrected in a new body by Belasco, but she did not possess a soul. She became ruler of Limbo once more and also joined the New Mutants.
  • In a bid to get her own soul back, Magik tried to steal a part of Pixie’s soul, in the process giving the young girl the ability to create a soul dagger. [New X-Men (2nd series) #37-41]

Chronology Continued

New Mutants (3rd series) #16

Whilst X-Factor believed the babies had been returned to their families or placed in care, many of them were sent to a government testing facility. Using the DNA of the ten babies used in N’Astirh’s spell, a portal between Earth and Limbo was opened. The government set up a base in Limbo, called the Hatchery, where the babies were sent to grow. A team, led by General Ulysses and Doctor Noc, oversaw the operations in a mission called Project Purgatory. For every day that passed on Earth, weeks passed in Limbo and the babies became children. Of the thirteen babies sent to Limbo, eleven survived the ordeal.
After four years in Limbo, a team of soldiers stumbled upon a Bloodstone amulet and brought it back to the Hatchery. Having sensed the amulets presence, Belasco’s daughter Witchfire stormed the base. Believing the babies killed, the soldiers on Earth closed the portal to Limbo off, trapping everyone alive in the Hatchery. 

New Mutants (3rd series) #18

The children had survived the demonic invasion and had actually helped fend it off when their mutant powers began to manifest. Doctor Noc set about patching up the wounded, including one of the children whose face was obliterated during his power manifestation. Realizing that their best chance of survival was to work together, the children and soldiers began to cooperate to find a way out of Limbo. 

New Mutants (3rd series) #15-16

After 26 years in Limbo, General Ulysses and Doctor Noc found their way back to Earth and met up with their superiors. Only four years had passed on Earth, but the government wanted the project scrapped and clarification on the fate of the mutant babies. Ulysses demanded they bring in Magik but, after realizing his superiors wouldn’t co-operate, he decided to enact his plan without their help. Waiting for the X-student Pixie to be away from the X-Men, Ulysses had his soldiers kidnap her so he could use her soul dagger. He returned to his superiors, this time with the now-adult Limbo babies. Showing no mercy, the mutants obliterated the soldiers so that Ulysses could continue with his plan unchallenged. 

New Mutants (3rd series) #17-18

After taking out the soldiers, the mutants guarded General Ulysses as he set about extracting the fragments of her soul from Pixie’s dagger. They were surprised when a portal to Limbo opened up and the New Mutants stepped through it. A fight ensued and Toko easily took Magik’s soulsword off of her before passing her to Shauna, who used her paralysis power to keep her subdued. Alex took care of Karma before the telepath could get inside anyone’s mind. Cypher was targeted by Trista, who used her words to manipulate him until he was under her control. Cannonball squared off against Timothy, before he was captured in Alex’s gelatinous form. Loca fought Moonstar and took great pleasure in breaking the woman’s arm before knocking her out. Sunspot was outmatched by Scab, who remained impervious to the former’s punches. Finally, Magma was knocked out by a blast from Face. 

New Mutants (3rd series) #19

The New Mutants were split up into groups, with the Limbo babies torturing them for their own pleasure. Subdued by Shauna, Karma drifted in and out of consciousness but managed to make contact with the blind, deaf, mute Face. Having acquired the soul fragment from Pixie, General Ulysses had the Limbo mutants load the New Mutants on a shuttle, ready to go into Limbo once more. Ulysses revealed his plan to use the completed Bloodstone Amulet to open a portal, allowing the Elder Gods to destroy Limbo once and for all. Under Trista’s vocal control, Cypher was helpless to resist as he carried his friends onto the shuttle. Having reached Face’s mind and showed him the true horrors of his situation, Karma convinced him to turn on his teammates. Firing off an energy beam, Face killed Timothy and Maw, as well as a number of Ulysses’ soldiers, allowing Karma to escape back to Earth with Magik and Pixie.

New Mutants (3rd series) #20

General Ulysses and the Limbo babies took the New Mutants to the Hatchery in Limbo and prepared to cast the spell. Knowing what would happen if the Elder Gods were unleashed, some of the tribes of Limbo attempted to bargain with Ulysses, but he had Russel killed their emissaries. The other demons weren’t so tactile and they stormed the base, forcing Loca to fight back. She took down a horde of demons, but was killed by Moonstar who shot her in the face with an arrow. Shauna managed to complete the spell, opening the portal and unleashing the Elder Gods. 

New Mutants (3rd series) #21

Instead of destroying Limbo, the Elder Gods tore open a portal to Earth and began laying waste to it. When Ulysses demanded they stop, he was killed instantly. The rest of the New Mutants were freed and Cannonball blew up a shuttle with Doctor Noc and the fleeing Limbo mutants on, killing them all. Having learned how Trista used her powers, Cypher turned them back on her and subdued her. The Elder Gods were eventually stopped by the reality warping Legion, who erased them from existence.

Afterwards

  • Face was taken in by Karma and enrolled at the X-Men’s school on Utopia, and then later at Westchester. [New Mutants (3rd series) #25]
  • Trista, the only other surviving Limbo baby, has not been seen since.

Members

Note: Only Russel and Timothy were ever identified on-panel as babies. For the rest of them, their first appearance will either be X-Terminators #2, #3 or X-Factor (1st series) #35, where they all appeared as unnamed babies. For the sake of this article, if their first appearance can’t be identified then the first confirmed appearance of New Mutants (3rd series) #15 should be used. The same goes for identifying all appearances of a given individual. Since there is no way to distinguish the babies apart in their earlier appearances, only the confirmed appearances are used.

Alex

First Appearance: See above note

All Appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #40, New Mutants (3rd series) #15-21
Last Appearance: New Mutants (3rd series) #21 (Killed when Cannonball blew up his shuttle)

Powers: Body composed of a fluid gellatinous mass, able to stretch and flow into different shapes, absorb impact, and smother attackers

Bob

First Appearance: See above note
 

All Appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #40, New Mutants (3rd series) #15-21
Last Appearance: New Mutants (3rd series) #21 (Killed when Cannonball blew up his shuttle)

Powers: Bio-dissociation power allows pieces removed from his body to reorganize their mass into complete miniature duplicates, animated and capable of independent action while providing sensory information back to the progenitor

Face

First Appearance: See above note

All Appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #40, New Mutants (3rd series) #15-21

Powers: Weaponized brainstem produces uncontrollable annihilation beam, cybernetic firing mechanism over his destroyed face focuses the effect

Loca

First Appearance: See above note

All Appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #40, New Mutants (3rd series) #15-20
Last Appearance: New Mutants (3rd series) #2o (Killed when Moonstar shot her in the face with an arrow)

Powers: Artificially-grafted demon and bionic limbs enhanced her strength and agility, empathic tracker able to sense others from a distance and read their emotional states

Maw

First Appearance: See above note

All Appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #40, New Mutants (3rd series) #15-19
Last Appearance: New Mutants (3rd series) #19 (Killed by an energy blast from Face)

Powers: Augmented strength, body covered with quasi-functional mouths and random emergent teeth

Russel

First Appearance: X-Terminators #2

All Appearances: X-Terminators #2-4, New Mutants (1st series) #71-72, X-Factor (1st series) #40, New Mutants (3rd series) #15-21
Last Appearance: New Mutants (3rd series) #21 (Killed when Cannonball blew up his shuttle)

Powers: Superhuman speed, reaction time, and perceptual acuity to respond at high speeds

Scab

First Appearance: See above note

All Appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #40, New Mutants (3rd series) #15-21
Last Appearance: New Mutants (3rd series) #21 (Killed when Cannonball blew up his shuttle)

Powers: Reactive blood armor grows from mutated scab tissue when cut, causing ever-thicker layers of hardened mass to form on his body, increasing his strength and resistance to injury

Shauna

First Appearance: See above note

All Appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #40, New Mutants (3rd series) #15-21
Last Appearance: New Mutants (3rd series) #21 (Killed when Cannonball blew up her shuttle)

Powers: Suckers on her arms have a sense of taste and produce a powerful narcotic agent

Timothy

First Appearance: X-Terminators #2

All Appearances: X-Terminators #2-4, New Mutants (1st series) #71-72, X-Factor (1st series) #40, New Mutants (3rd series) #15-21
Last Appearance: New Mutants (3rd series) #19 (Killed by an energy blast from Face)

Powers: Collapsable bio-jets in his forearms can be used as concussive blasters or for limited flight

Toko

First Appearance: See above note

All Appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #40, New Mutants (3rd series) #15-21
Last Appearance: New Mutants (3rd series) #21 (Killed when Cannonball blew up her shuttle)

Powers: Impervious form neutralizes any force used against her, leaving her unharmed and completely unaffected by all forms of attack

Trista

First Appearance: See above note

All Appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #40, New Mutants (3rd series) #15-21

Powers: Neural-linguistic ability allows her to speak in a unique language that bypasses the willpower of others, forcing them to follow her instructions

Associates

General Charles L. Ulysses

First Appearance: New Mutants (3rd series) #15

All Appearances: New Mutants (3rd series) #15-21
Last Appearance: New Mutants (3rd series) #21 (Killed by the Elders Gods)

Powers: none

Doctor Noc

First Appearance: New Mutants (3rd series) #15

All Appearances: New Mutants (3rd series) #15-21
Last Appearance: New Mutants (3rd series) #21 (Killed when Cannonball blew up her shuttle)

Powers: Demonic arm transplant possessing superhuman strength