BIOGRAPHY - Page 4
Miraculously, they reappeared as if nothing had ever happened. However, when they went to the Exile’s base, they discovered they had been gone approximately six months. After figuring out what had happened, Longshot and the rest of the team vowed to keep up with their mission statement. They were alerted to a reality in trouble but when they got there the world seemed to be in a blissful state of peace. Longshot wasn’t convinced though and pointed out things were too perfect and the people lacked any kind of passion. He was proved correct when they discovered that Victor von Doom, a member of that world’s Fantastic Four, has used his powers to bring world peace at a cost of halting any progression within society. Doom was eventually defeated but the result was that the entire planet was destroyed and the Exiles were scattered across the multiverse. [Exiles (1st series) #95-98]
The team managed to re-gather themselves again but a few decided to leave to resume a normal life. Longshot remained but his past quickly caught up with him when Dazzler and her Excalibur teammates came looking for help. Captain Britain had been severely injured and Psylocke, now on the Exiles, had brought him to the Exile’s base. Dazzler was stunned to see her supposedly deceased husband alive and well. However, because of the many mind wipes Mojo had given Longshot, he could not remember who she was. 
Their personal troubles had to take a back-seat though as they realized the entire omniverse was in danger, thanks to Merlyn and his allies. Whilst Longshot was protecting Merlyn’s daughter Roma from the invading forces, he couldn’t help but think of Dazzler and how she felt so familiar to him. The heroes eventually beat Merlyn and his forces but in the carnage Dazzler was injured. The worry Longshot felt for her brought back some deeply buried feelings and, although he couldn’t remember all their history, he could remember enough. The two teams parted ways again but Longshot decided to head back to Earth with Dazzler to try and rekindle their relationship. [X-Men: Die by the Sword #1-5]
Sadly things did not work out for them as Longshot was not the man Dazzler once knew and, the more they tried to recreate what they had, the more forced it felt. It wasn’t helped by the fact Longshot was irresistible to the opposite sex and Dazzler often felt threatened by the attention he would receive from other women. Eventually the pair split up again and Longshot went his own way. One day, he opened a newspaper to see himself in a photo that had been taken a few days before. Confused as to what was going on, he headed off to find some answers and ended up on the doorstep of X-Factor Investigations. After an initial misunderstanding, they explained that the Skrull Empire had recently tried to take over Earth and one of their soldiers posed as Longshot in a bid to get closer to another mutant, Darwin. The photo Longshot had seen was of the Skrull, who had been subsequently disposed of by the team.
Whilst he was there, he felt an instinctive urge to go to see Jamie Madrox, who was on a case at the local hospital. As it turned out, Longshot’s psychometric ability proved very useful as he was able to see what happened to Darwin’s father, who was in a coma in the hospital. His father had sold his son to a shady organization that wanted to harness Darwin’s evolution ability. Longshot’s powers were key in tracking down the missing mutant. After saving Darwin, Longshot decided to stick around with X-Factor as he seemed quite well suited as a private investigator. [X-Factor (3rd series) #35-38]
Thanks to his natural abilities with women, Longshot managed to hit it off with fellow teammate Monet, although nothing ever progressed past flirting. His talents were soon required again on another case when he had to try and protect a woman who feared someone was trying to kill her. As it turns out, she was right and she had been targeted for execution by someone from the future named Cortex. It turned out that Cortex was one of Madrox’s dupes that had been sent into the timestream months earlier. Longshot ended up fighting Cortex himself and might have succumbed to his influence if it hadn’t been for a well-aimed knife and a bit of luck. 
Cortex was eventually defeated thanks to a combination of efforts from both the present and the future. [X-Factor (3rd series) #41-50]
In the wake of the Cortex case, X-Factor Investigations moved from Detroit back to New York. Another change was that Shatterstar, who had been brainwashed by Cortex and sent after X-Factor, was now a member of the team. The rest of the group quickly noticed that he and Longshot shared some similar characteristics. At some point in the past, despite the mind wipes, Longshot became aware of the link he and Shatterstar shared but thought it best that no-one else knew. [X-Factor (1st series) #200]
Longshot’s psychometric abilities came in handy again when the Invisible Woman disappeared and X-Factor was charged with finding her. [X-Factor (1st series) #200-202] They also saved some of his team’s lives when he got a reading off a wad of cash the Absorbing Man gave him and discovered the villain was setting them up to be killed. [X-Factor (1st series) #204-206]
When the X-Men moved to the island of Utopia, all mutants were invited to join them. 
Madrox decided to take his X-Factor team to visit the island and talk with Cyclops about what they wanted to do. One of the mutants on the island was Dazzler and, after an awkward initial meeting, she and Longshot buried the hatchet. In fact, they decided the best way to go over old times was to sleep together. Longshot was having so much fun that he didn’t realize the rest of his team had teleported back to New York, leaving him on Utopia. [X-Factor: Nation X]
Longshot bid farewell to Dazzler and their brief reconnection and travelled back to New York to meet up with X-Factor. An altercation with the Asgardian goddess of death Hela saw the team travel to Las Vegas to where she was residing. The team was having trouble getting leads on her until Longshot followed his instincts and went gambling. He was amazed at the lifestyle in the city as it was as close to Mojoverse as an Earth city could get. His luck caused him to start winning big at the casinos until he gained the attention of Hela. The team fought through Hela’s undead army and eventually defeated her and rescued Pip the Troll, who was bring kept prisoner. [X-Factor (1st series) #208-209, #211-212]
By now it had became apparent to most of the team that Longshot and Shatterstar shared some sort of link. Whilst on a mission, Rictor asked Shatterstar what the link between them was and he was almost given an answer but Longshot slyly stopped Shatterstar from saying anything. [X-Factor (1st series) #217]
Longshot managed to find a foil for his powers when he ended up working alongside the Black Cat. With both heroes possessing luck-based powers they found it difficult to be around each other with things going wrong for them. The Black Cat decided it would be a bad idea for them to ever date, much to Longshot’s disappointment. [X-Factor (1st series) #219]
The team went through a number of changes over the course of a few months. As well as a stream of supernatural enemies to deal with, the deaths and subsequent resurrections of both Madrox and Strong Guy caused a lot of tension. Whilst all that upheaval was going on, Longshot remained one of the more constant members of the team. 
However, when the team was asked to investigate a series of murders of amateur costume vigilantes, things took a dire turn. Longshot tried to get a reading off a video camera that one of the victims possessed but, when he touched it, he was overcome by a strange force and was knocked unconscious. Not even Monet could wake him with her telepathy. When Shatterstar and Madrox investigated the murders, they found out they were being caused by an agent named Scattershot, who had been sent by Mojo. When Scattershot escaped, though, his reasons for coming to Earth escaped with him. [X-Factor (1st series) #235-236]
Longshot’s condition didn’t improve even with Monet’s telepathic scanning. The team could only watch over him and hope for a recovery. So when they saw him walking around as if nothing had happened they were somewhat surprised. What no one knew, though, was that Longshot had received a visitor in the form of Shatterstar. What Shatterstar did to bring Longshot around, if he did anything at all, remains a mystery. [X-Factor (1st series) #238]
Tensions between the various team members were reaching breaking point and some had begun to go their separate ways. Longshot was noticeably depressed over the loss of Strong Guy, with whom he had struck up a good friendship. 
A distraction came along in the form of Polaris. Whilst talking to her one day, he inadvertently received a psychometric reading off an old photograph of hers. He was so disturbed by what he saw that he ran off and refused to say anything. Polaris wouldn’t let it lie and she attacked him until he agreed to reveal what he saw. Using Monet’s telepathy, he agreed to show Polaris what he saw, but covertly asked Monet to twist the truth because he feared what it would do to Polaris. Nevertheless, Polaris soon saw through the lie and forced him to show her what he had truly seen. When Polaris learned she had accidentally brought down her parents’ plane with her magnetism, she was devastated and lashed out at those around her, something that Longshot had wanted to prevent. [X-Factor (1st series) #243]
X-Factor’s troubles continued as half of the team left for various reasons. The remaining members were dragged into an almighty war that was raging between the Lords of Hell. Apparently, they had been offered a deal by a higher power that whoever killed the seven billionth soul on Earth would rule all of Hell. By chance, the soul belonged to Wolfsbane’s son, Tier. After a long and tense series of battles it ended up being Strong Guy who killed Tier and ultimately put an end to the war. This was too much for the team and the remaining members went their separate ways. [X-Factor (1st series) #248-256]