One of the nice things about this series is the way they handle the quieter character moments. Each member has a distinct personality and they actually act like kids. X-23 has a crush on Hellion, whose powers have gone a bit nuts since Emma removed the psychic limitation blocks that prevented him from going all the way. Laura stares wistfully at him while he trains with Beast.
Emma comes up and expresses (again) that X-23 is dangerous because, like Wolverine, she’s a killing machine who is at risk of losing control. Emma is such a nag. And I love how self-righteous she always is when she was a member of the Hellfire Club and STILL WEARS THE WHITE QUEEN S&M GEAR!!
I like this because X-23 is struggling to avoid having her powers hurt others and Julian is doing the same thing—it makes sense that X-23 would crush on him.
Mercury realizes that X-23 likes Hellion and convinces her to sneak away for a girls-only talk. While out, they are attacked by soldiers from The Facility (where Laura was raised to be a living weapon). They kidnap Mercury and…
Stick her in a clear tube! It’s been so long since I got to use my tag about heroes being stuck in tubes! This totally makes my nerd day. Mammomax is there, too. The Facility has created a new living weapon and they release it on the captive and…
Kill him.
Hellion and X-23 try to find The Facility (and there’s a nice scene where they interrogate The Owl). When they finally locate their kidnapped friend, they have to fight their way through Kimura’s protection troops.
Then they face the creatures who killed Mammomax…
They are called “Predator X.” The team are able to defeat The Facility’s armed guards and Predators X. Once defeated, Emma Frost does some hardcore brain-damage to Kimura.
That’s badass.
At the very end, we see Amanda Sefton crash in a ball of fire in Germany and tell us (the readers) that something’s coming.
Another great arc for this book.
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