The Uncanny X-Men 141 – 142 (Claremont & Byrne)
A middle aged woman in a drab green jump suit and a high tech collar makes her way through the ruins of New York. Her name is Kate Pryde, and she is making a detour from her acceptable route.
Suddenly the floor gives way beneath her and she falls into a basement - it's tap set by brutal beings, scavenger going by the name of rogues. Before they can attack they are attacked themselves, by Logan, but he is not the Wolverine of old. He is dressed in jeans and a leather jacket, his hair streaked with grey.
It is the future, but not the future of equality and peace dreamed of by Professor Xavier. Here mutants have been either subjugated or killed, the survivors living in concentration camps controlled by the Sentinels. Only a few like Logan are still free, and he has brought a small device for Kate, something she can use in a last, desperate plan.
She leaves returning to the camp where she lives, her powers deactivated by her collar, the camp is surrounded by a massive graveyard, all the stones bearing the names of the mutants killed by the humans and sentinels. Many of the names are familiar. Scott Summers. Hank McCoy. Kurt Wagner. Charles Xavier. The list goes on, including many non-mutant heroes like the Fantastic Four and Peter Parker.
Kate returns to her fellows, Ororo, her husband Peter Rasputin, an old man in a wheelchair - Magneto, the son of Reed and Sue Richards - Franklin and a short haired redhead known only as Rachael.
They use the device supplied by Logan to finish a device that inhibits the inhibitor collars, allowing the group to use their powers. Peter is not convinced about the plan, that it is too dangerous and might claim the woman he loves, but we learn how damaged Kate is, that she is scarred from losing her friends and seeing her babies brutally killed in front of her. She has to do it, because there is nothing else to live for. It appears that Rachael is a powerful telepath, and she uses her power to take hold of Kate's mind and temporally swap it with her younger self, at least that is the mad desperate plan...
In the modern world Sprite wanders into the Danger World during a serious training session and nearly gets killed. After the X-Men have managed to save her, it is decided that it is time for her first solo session in the Danger Room.
She takes a deep breath. closes her eyes and walks right across the room, oblivious to all the things it throws at her. The X-Men are reduced to tear through laughter, recognising that Professor Xavier spent weeks programming the room to test Kitty and she walks through it with her eyes closed.
Or it seems that way... but as she reaches the far side of the room she gasps and slumps to the floor.
She recovers in the sickroom, where the first person she sees is Kurt, and throws herself around him in a huge hug - which flummoxes Kurt, he could not even look at her without her flinching.
She explains. She is Kitty from the future, Kate. She tells the terrible tale, and that they chose this time to come back to because they believe this is where things began to go wrong, and it was also a time when Kitty was still untrained, her psychic defences would not be strong enough to stop the mind swap.
In only a few hours, she claims that a new Brotherhood of Mutants will attack a conference in Washington, the result will be the death of Senator Robert Kelly, a man that has been working against the mutants since the Hellfire Club incident. Not only this but doctor Moira McTaggert and Professor Charles Xavier will die as well. This will tip paranoia over the edge and the events that will lead to the dystopian future will be set in motion. Basically they have to save a man who hates them.
The X-Men aren't convinced, but Wolverine is. He tells them that although Kitty looks like a kid, she stands, speaks and carries herself like a woman. They take the risk and head for Washington.
In the future the surviving X-Men escape the camp and vanish into the abandoned subway tunnels.
The sentinels however find them and in the first few seconds of the attack Franklin is killed. Rachael responds, revealing that she has telekinetic powers too, tearing the giant robot apart with her mind.
Battle is joined. The X-Men cut loose and ove3rcome the patrol... but they have already lost a member.
Back to the present: We are introduced to the new Brotherhood, their leader Mystique - a shape changer, Destiny and elderly precog, Avalanche can make the ground shake, Pyro a pyrotechnic and the Blob. It is obvious they are not a team used to working with one another but Mystique keeps them in line.
The debate rages on, and Professor Xavier is surprised to see his team arrive. When he reads her mind and realises the danger he begins to give instructions, but before anyone can react the walls are torn apart - The Brotherhood have arrived.
They advance but only take a few feet when a lightning bolt falls from above...
The New X-Men and New Brotherhood of Mutants face one another for the first time.
The cover tells it all: Everybody dies!!!
The X-Men are thrown off balance by the attack of the Brotherhood, thrown onto the backfoot, quite literally as Avalanche pulls the ground from under their feet.
Only Angel and Kate Pryde avoid the conflict, Kate telling him that they need to protect Senator Kelly above all else.
Professor Xavier and Moira are led away from the scene by a police woman, but she suddenly turns on them and knocks them out with gas. She transforms into Mystique. Destiny arrives on the scene and tells Mystique that there is something wrong, something undefined, some kind of anomaly is interfering with her ability to see the future.
In the future the surviving X-Men begin a last desperate attack on the command centre of the Sentinels - the Baxter Building. They overpower the guard robot and gain entry to the building, allowing Storm, Wolverine and Colossus to begin their assault. Rachael stays hidden away, protecting the body of Kate Pryde, in which Kitty sleeps unaware.
The X-Men are hampered being inside as they fight the Brotherhood, and Storm feels that they are losing because she is not the leader Cyclops was, all the same she uses her abilities to blow the main combatants out the wall and the fight really takes off outside, with the army getting involved, not caring about who they fire at.
Colossus is overwhelmed by the Blob, while Wolverine gets fried by Pyro, then as he recovers Nightcrawler offers him a quick escape, only for Nightcrawler to be attacked by Nightcrawler!
Wolverine is ready to wade and kill the false Nightcrawler, figuring that the real one would teleport out the way, but Storm not only tells him not to, but enforces the command, and Wolverine actually listens.
Instead he helps Colossus, using his body as the balance for an I-beam which allows Colossus to lever the Blob into the air, and as he comes down knock him into the middle of next week! Not only that but he lands on Avalanche.
Storm lets loose one of the biggest rain torrents she has ever attempted right above Pyro, putting out his fires.
One of the Nightcrawlers knocks the other down. The fallen one transforms into Mystique, who surprises Nightcrawler with an intimate release of information about his past, as he reacts stunned she escapes, changing shape.
As they recover the X-Men realise that Kate has vanished...
In the future: The X-Men reach the command centre. The door of the elevator opens and Wolverine is thrown Fastball special at the nearest Sentinel, but it turns fat too quickly, incinerating him in mid air, leaving only a smoking skeleton...
Storm fries the robot, then another as more arrive, but a third fires a spike that impales her and she falls into Colossus' arms.
Driven into a grief fuelled rage the mutant attacks...
Outside Rachael stays with Colossus, linked with his mind as he dies, leaving her alone with Kate's body.
Destiny has cornered Kelly. She prepares to shoot him, but her mind and body are torn apart as Kate phases through her, the temporal anomaly she represents more than the precog can stand. She fires the bolt, but it misses. Kate's mind is torn free and Kitty returns wondering what the hell is going on.
With most of the Brotherhood in custody the X-Men make their exit.
But later Kelly meets with Sebastian Shaw, where they are introduced to Peter Henry Gyrch - (a bureaucrat last used in the Avengers. Kelly is furious that mutants tried to kill him, and although he was saved by a mutant, it cuts no mustard.
Shaw suggests a solution: Sentinels.
