Pursued by Emma Frost (in Storm’s body), Storm (in Emma’s body) makes her escape from the Massachusetts Academy with Kitty Pryde. Kitty awakens and is frightened, thinking that Storm is Emma. She attempts an escape and Storm’s efforts to stop her result in the car going off the road and down an embankment. Kitty falls separately, protected by her phasing power, while the car explodes upon impact. Emma leaves, thinking them both dead. Kitty finds what she thinks to be the body of Emma Frost, lying just outside the fire from the car’s explosion. Though Kitty does not believe her at first, Storm manages to convince Kitty to help her, since she cannot take the risk of the other X-Men being in danger. Meanwhile, the other X-Men believe Storm has become the new White Queen at Shaw’s side. Guards take Wolverine from the room where they are being held captive. Storm and Kitty are picked up by Stevie Hunter and driven back to the mansion. After dropping them off and saying goodbye, Stevie is captured by Emma and Shaw. Within the mansion, Harry Leland seemingly kills Wolverine in the Danger Room, but it is merely the appearance of death, created by Amanda Sefton. Storm uses Emma’s psionic powers to help Kitty unlock mansion’s hanger’s hatch, as Kitty is able to phase through the earth to get to it. The two manage to get inside before Emma and Shaw, still patrolling the outdoors, attack them. Inside, Kitty finds Wolverine and they exchange information. Kitty frees the X-Men by phasing through their inhibitor collars. Shaw is thrown by Colossus through a hole in the wall that Shaw had created, into the lake. The X-Men and the members of the Hellfire Club battle until a freak storm appears. On his way back, Shaw is struck down by an extremely intense bolt of lightning. Storm forces a psionic rapport with Emma in order to control the storm and then uses the persona exchange gun to switch their bodies back. All this occurs far up in the sky. Emma falls and Storm saves her just before impact, a favor for which Emma shows her appreciation by proceeding to attack Storm. Her patience depleted, Storm goes wild and intends to kill Emma, but is stopped by Wolverine’s reasoning that Storm is the type of person to show others a different way of resolving such situations. Since both groups fear exposure, they agree not to involve the authorities. Emma explains that, until Shaw recovers, the X-Men have nothing to fear from the Hellfire Club but, inwardly, vows that someday the X-Men will all die.

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