X-Men # 199 - Red Data (Part 3 of 3)

Overview

“CONDITION CRITICAL”

The X-Men are one issue away from 200…and let’s hope Cable and Rogue can make it! Facing a nearly indestructible enemy, both Cable and Rogue will need to make choices that will alter their lives forever.

Part 3 (of 3)!

The Hetacomb is still attacking and nothing the X-Men do can stop it. Sentinel tries to get the Conquistador (their ship) but Sabretooth has broken free of his bonds and is controlling it. Mystique questions what the Hetacomb made out of, and when Sentinel tells them that it's solid at its core, they try everything they have to see if it has a weakness. It doesn't. Sentinel gets thrown through the sky and Sabretooth watches and smiles far above. His smile fades when the ship stops flying correctly and starts to plummet towards the Hetacomb.

Iceman tells the team on the ground that the ship is fueled by a fusion core that, if it explodes, is hotter than the surface of the sun. Mystique asks him if he can handle it and he says they'll find out. She kisses him for good luck. The ship hits the Hetacomb and explodes. Iceman shows that he can handle it by freezing everything and protecting the team from the heat.

Sentinel, assuming that Creed had sacrificed himself to save them, was stunned. Cable appears behind her and tells her that it wasn't Sabretooth, it was him using his restored (by the mummudrai) telekinesis. He says that he thought a big enough explosion would kill the alien machine, but that Conquistador wasn't big enough. He and the mummudrai move in to fight the Hetacomb mind to mind. The Hetacomb starts using stolen minds as weapons and Cable is overwhelmed, so he uses his psychic powers to wake up Rogue.

Rogue wakes up in a nearby Providence hospital and knows her team needs help. A doctor tries to get her to lay down, but touches Rogues skin and dies. Rogue finds that she can now instantly absorb people's memories, but it now kills them right away and not slowly like before. She's also still suffering from Strain 88. She turns on Sunfire's powers and flies onto the battlefield.

Cable is still trying to fight the Hetacomb but he loses. The alien kills and consumes the mummudrai and is about to eat Cable when Cannoball saves him. Rogue flies in and finds out that the alien feeds on and is made up of minds, and she knows exactly what she has to do. She goes inside it and absorbs the 8 billion minds that make up the Hetacomb. All that's left of the living weapon is a floating bomb, but it's still a huge danger.

Cable has Iceman freeze the bomb to near absolute zero and then directs Cannonball and Sentinel to fly at it at full force. The bomb is destroyed without exploding. The team checks on Rogue and finds that she's alive, but she's not okay. In her head are 8 billion aliens and they're all trying to talk. The presence of Mystique snaps Rogue back to her normal self and she threatens Mystique. Rogue goes away and the team looks at the devastation. They also discover that Sabretooth is nowhere to be found.