| Synopsis | - The Juggernaut -- Charles Xavier's mystically enhanced step-brother -- has finally returned home to once more renew his rivalry with his brother. Charles attempts to protect himself with his vast mental powers, but finds to his shock and surprise that Cain's helmet protects him from mental attacks. The X-Men revive and with Marvel Girl telekinetic powers tripping up the Juggernaut, Cyclops blasts the floor out from under their foe causing him to crash to the floor below and giving the X-Men time to retreat back and try to come up with a means of defeating their attacker.
Taking Xavier to their lab, the Professor builds a device that allows him to amplify his mental projections and sends out a thought wave into the city to seek allies in defeating the Juggernaut. Meanwhile, Cyclops and Angel go back to where they last see the Juggernaut attempting to keep him at bay with Cyke's optic blasts. However the Juggernaught smashes his way around the two X-Men and gets the drop on them. Angel's fists, nor Cyclops' optic blasts are capable of stopping their enemy.
Back in the lab, the Professor manages to contact both Rick Jone's Teen Brigade and Matt Murdock however, neither can come to the X-Men's aid. To stall for time, the Professor then sends Beast and Iceman to go out and help Cyclops and Angel, who are having a hard time keeping the Juggernaut back. As Iceman and Beast join the fray, Charles attempts to get the aid of the Fantastic Four's Johnny Storm who is out testing a new modified car with some of his classmates. Hearing the Professor's mental call for help, Johnny assumes that it might be from one of the Fantastic Four's many villains and dismisses it.
Although he is trapped in an ice block, the Juggernaut manages to break free and battles the Beast in hand to hand combat. The Beast only succeeds in getting his foot injured, however this does not stop the brainy Mutant, who lures the Juggernaut into the Danger Room and activates all it's traps in the hope that the it can defeat this seemingly unstoppable foe. The Juggernaut survives all the traps and then knocks the Beast out when he throws back a rolling cylinder.
By this time the Professor has finally managed to convince the Human Torch to the X-Men's rescue, and then goes with Marvel Girl to help the others. Jean keeps the Juggernaut off balance by lifting him in the air with her telekinetic powers until the Torch arrives. Johnny uses his flame powers to melt away the rivets from his helmet, and commands the reviving Angel to remove it from the Juggernauts head. Without his protective helmet, the Juggernaut is easily struck down by the Professor's mental powers.
With the battle over, the Professor thanks Johnny for his help, however wishes the secret of the X-Men's headquarters to remain a mystery and erases the memory from Johnny's mind and sends him on his way. Later the male members of the X-Men are sent to bed to recover from the injuries they sustained battling the Juggernaut with Jean acting as their nurse, much to the pleasure of the men. Proud of his X-Men, the Professor tells him he has an award for them when they are once more able to be up and about.
- Continued from last issue...
Cerebro is calling out an intruder alert prompting the X-Men to dawn their uniforms and come to the Professor's study to learn who this mysterious intruder is. Telling his charges that whoever is approaching the mansion is extremely powerful, he sends the group out to set up defenses including an ice wall, live-wire lined trench and fence posts rigged with grenades. When the X-Men return to the Professor, they are shocked to learn that their attacker is none other than Xavier's own brother.
The Professor tells his X-Men that his father was a nuclear research scientist who was accidentally killed during a nuclear bomb test in the New Mexico desert. During his father's funeral, Kurt Marko -- his father's assistant -- would come to comfort Xavier's mother. However, the young Charles, already developing mental abilities, could read Kurt's mind and learn of his less than covets intentions to take his mother and his father's wealth, two things that Marko had become envying of.
Shortly thereafter, Kurt would move into the Xavier mansion, and marry Charle's mother. Kurt became a ruthless and verbally abusive step-parent and would shun his new family for his work, during this time Kurt's true motives would come out. One day, Kurt would be thrown into a fury when his own son from a previous marriage, Cain, when Kain would come to the Xavier Mansion after yet another expulsion from school. Cain would turn out to be a cruel tormentor to young Charles.
The Professor's narrative is interrupted when Cain's advancement on the mansion progresses, easily smashing through the ice wall put up by Iceman, much to the X-Men's surprise. Charle's continues the story of his youth: He would explain one day that he would overhear Kurt and Cain arguing over money. When Cain would suggest that Kurt had orchestrated the death of Charles' father Charles would enter and confront Kurt. During the moment of tension, Cain would try to throw chemicals at Charles, however Kurt would attempt to stop them sending the volatile brew crashing to the floor and causing an explosion and fire. Kurt would carry the two boys out of the blast, and having been mortally wounded in the blast, would beg Charles to believe that his father's death was only an accident before dying.
As Cain manages to break past the trench and live-wire trap on the mansion grounds, Charles plays for time to finish the final part of his story. Charles explains that by his adulthood he found that his mental powers could allow him to have an advantage over other students, however he decides against it. Xavier would then decide to challenge his body, as his mind was already vastly superior and would get into sports. His trophy winnings would earn the ire of Cain who would push Charles too far one day and the two would get into a fight which Charles would easily win due to his superior fighting skill. Some days later, Cain would attempt to make Charles cry out in fear by driving recklessly. He would only succeed in making the car drive out of control and smash through a detour sign and down a cliff. Cain would bail out, but Charles wouldn't be so lucky, however Charles would tell his X-Men that he was able to erect a mental shield around himself to protect him from the crash.
Outside the mansion, Cain finishes with the live wire and still manages to get past the grenades and gas traps that were set out for him. With their attacker mere feet away, Iceman puts an ice barrier over the window of Xavier's study to allow the Professor to tell the final part of his story: How the now adult Cain and Charles would be enlisted in the military and would be sent to fight in the Korean War. The two would be separated from their unit and would be forced to seek refuge in a cave to escape enemy fire. Inside the cavern Charles and Cain would discover the long lost temple of Cyttorak. The greedy Cain would grab for a crimson gem that was left before an altar. Upon contact the gem would absorb itself into Cain's body transforming him into a hulking form. The transformation would cause a cave in which Charles would flee from and Cain would seemingly perish in.
Finishing his story, Charles realizes that this is far from the case and that Cain has finally dug himself out from the cave and sought out his brother for revenge. With the last of the outer defenses the X-Men would seal the mansions front door with a near impervious steel plate and wait for Cain's next move. Much to the X-Men's surprise, Cain is able to smash through the supposedly indestructible steel wall and easily knock the X-Men aside. Revealing himself for the first time in years, Charles looks at his brother -- garbed in a special mystical armor -- and calls him a Juggernaut.
|
