The Vulture landed at the Tinkerer's workshop and demanded information. Tinkrerer revealed that an anonymous benefactor had paid him a large amount of money to recreate the Vulture's wings and send them to him in prison. He added that the Vulture was to attack Speedball as part of the Acts of Vengeance. However, the Vulture refused to waste his time with Speedball and forced the Tinkerer to help him in his plans to free Nitro.
Outside the maximum security facility, Rusty & Skids were still under fire. They procured a truck what had been left running. hey removed the sole guard from the trust and aided by Skid's force-field they drove their way through the gates.
Vulture flew the Tinkerer to the rooftop of the courthouse. He smashed the skylight and flew down stealing the canister that contained Nitro. He was back on the roof before the Tinkerer had the chance to flee down the fire escape. A van screeched to a halt on the street below as Rusty & Skids arrived. Police officers burst onto the roof, but the Vulture knocked them out with the Tinkerer's concussive grenades.
Rusty climbed the fire escape with Skids behind him to protect them both from the gunfire below. Skids moved slower as she had to hold tightly on to the ladder for fear that her force-field would make her slip off. Rusty rushed to the roof and lurched at Vulture, pushing them both off the roof. With the police firing at the Vulture & Rusty, Skids could drop her force-field and finally reached the roof. However, the canister containing Nitro has been de-activated, and he burst free.
While in the air, Rusty incinerated the Vulture's wings and they both plummetted back to the rooftop. The Vulture landed on Rusty, knocking him unconscious. He kept punching Rusty and Skids ran to protect him. However, Nitro continued to power up ready to detonate. Skids leapt towards him, but was unable to stop Nitro from exploding. He flashed so brightly that Skids was pushed backwards and her skeleton became visible from the blast.
Skids collapsed, too weak to hold her force-field any longer. She had managed to reduce the impact of the blast, but was unable to do anything while Nitro powered up for his next blast. However, as he began to glow brightly, Nitro suddenly collapsed into a pile of smoking dust. Tinkerer reasoned that the first explosion had been in such a confined space that it shattered Nitro's molecular bonds. Skids then passed out in the belief that they had saved everyone.
Meanwhile on Asgard, Warlock carried Boom-Boom's unconscious body while Hildy & the others looked for more wounded New Mutants. Cannonball was already lay in bed after receiving first aid. Moonstar cried as she blamed herself for everything that had happened, but Wolfsbane continued to console her. Hogun the Grim stepped towards Cannonball with a flask containing the Elixir of Life. Its effects were immediate, and Cannonball asked for it to be shared among the others. The New Mutants celebrated and Boom-Boom admitted that she would be sorry to leave Asgard. However, Badler reminded them that since no-one knew how they arrived in Asgard, that they didn't know how they would return to Earth.
Back on Earth, Freedom Force arrived at the courthouse. The paramedics refused to hand Rusty & Skids into custody, but Blob took them by force. Skids was still unconscious, so Rusty begged them to send her to the hospital. Crimson Commando refused, so Rusty began to burn with fire which Pyro used against him. Blob punched Rusty giving him a black eye, while Crimson Commando fed the media lies about how Rusty & Skids had been working with the Vulture & Nitro.
Elsewhere, a group of mutants broke into a major federal energy research facility near Dark Hole, Wyoming. Wildside set the explosives and Zero teleported them away before it detonated. The next morning, the authorities tried to understand what had happened when they received a message from the leader of the Mutant Liberation Front. They demanded the release of Rusty & Skids, or they would continue to destroy similar facilities in more acts of terrorism.
Note: Although the promotional panel for the next issue features Cable, this doesn't count as his first appearance. His official first full appearance takes place in the next issue, New Mutants # 87.
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