BIOGRAPHY - Page 4
With most of the student body depowered, there wasn’t a need for so many teachers and Amara left the institute once more. In the meantime, the X-Men had disbanded when Xavier was seemingly killed and the school destroyed. A short while later, she was targeted by a group of trainee X-Men, who seemingly wanted her killed. Magma made short work of most of them, but was caught off guard by Wolf Cub, who slashed her with his claws. She was quickly imprisoned by them, whilst she was unconscious, although she knew something was amiss when she woke and saw Cyclops was the one giving them orders. This group of students were attacking all the former members of the New Mutants on “Cyclops” orders, but they soon began to grow suspicious. It was soon revealed to be a trick by Donald Pierce, who was using an image inducer to disguise himself. Magma broke out of her cell just in time to help the kids taken on Pierce, who managed to teleport away soon after. Trying to figure out what was going on, Magma got the kids on Pierce’s jet and flew to find the rest of the New Mutants. She became the voice of reason when the two teams did meet up, making the kids see they had been played for fools. Pierce was eventually captured, but not before he murdered Wolf Cub in cold blood. [Young X-Men #2-5]
Soon enough, the real Cyclops reformed the X-Men in San Francisco, a city that was more tolerant to the mutant plight. Magma rejoined the team when the city came under attack from the Skrulls and Cyclops called for aid from every mutant he could think of. [Secret Invasion: X-Men #4] Magma stuck around afterwards and moved to the island of Utopia, just off the coast of San Francisco. Despite their bad history, Amara began tending to Empath, who had recently been blinded after attacking the team. Seeing how much he was struggling, she reached out to him but his volatile nature made him push her away.
Not long after, Amara and some of the former New Mutants were brought together when a time-travelling Magik landed on their doorstep, with a dire warning about Dani and Karma. After dying of the Legacy virus years before, Illyana had been resurrected, but she remained elusive and somewhat untrustworthy. Despite some misgivings, Amara and the others decided to trust Illyana and go look for their missing friends. As the quartet headed in a jet to Dani and Karma’s last known location, Amara and Illyana had time for a chat. Illyana’s demeanor unnerved Amara, as the sorceress claimed to be from one year in the future and that she had come back to save the two women as future-Amara blamed Magik for their deaths. Illyana calmly expanded on the story, saying that she couldn’t be so sure as to what Amara was really thinking, as she had a large hole eaten through her chest at the time. Amara was taken aback by Illyana’s new and creepy personality, but the young girl didn’t stop there. Out of earshot of Sam and Bobby, she taunted Amara over seeing Empath, going as far to say she could heal him, Amara just had to give the word and it would be their little secret.
Magma didn’t have the opportunity to accept Magik’s offer, as they soon arrived where Dani and Karma were last seen. The team split up and, after a little investigating, Magma found Karma (in a way at least), as her mind was trapped in Legion, the long-dead reality warping son of Professor X. To complicate matters, Karma seemed to be in a fight to stay in control of Legion’s body, as his other personalities were trying to take over. Despite Magma’s best efforts, one of Legion’s other personalities regained control and escaped from her, heading off to kill Dani, as he saw her as a threat to his existence. The team managed to regroup, with Cannonball coming up with an effective plan to keep Legion’s body busy, whilst Illyana entered his mind and took on the errant personalities. Magma and the others proved they still worked together well, keeping Legion on his toes long enough for Illyana to subdue him from within. Karma and Dani were saved, with the bonus being Cyclops so impressed that he allowed Magma and the team to continue operating as the New Mutants. [New Mutants (3rd series) #1-4]
It turned out Legion and Magik weren’t the only ones to come back to life, as Amara was about to find out. One night after training with the rest of the team, Amara went back to her room to discover a disorientated and injured Cypher waiting for her. As he had been dead for many years, she was stunned by his presence, which is probably why she was caught off guard by him when he then beat her savagely with a metal pipe. Cypher, who was one of the many mutants resurrected by Selene using the techno-organic virus, dragged Amara’s bleeding body to the rest of her team, declaring it was a message from Selene. As Amara lay bleeding out on the floor, the rest of the team tried to subdue Cypher, but the T.O. virus made him a much more formidable than he used to be.
Just as they were getting a handle on the situation, Amara’s former team the Hellions suddenly arrived, also looking to kill the New Mutants on Selene’s orders. Surrounded by formerly dead friends, and no communication from the rest of the X-Men, Illyana teleported the team away. Sunspot carried the gravely wounded Magma and made it his priority to get her to the medical bay before it was too late. It seemed Selene really wanted Magma dead when yet another dead mutant appeared, as Feral came tearing down the corridors looking for blood. Dispatching her as well, Sunspot made it to the medical bay just in time for Dr. Nemesis to inject Magma with a serum that would activate her powers. Magma’s skin turned into a molten, flowing state, healing her wounds enough for her to survive. The X-Men managed to take down Selene’s army of the undead and put an end to the sorceress’ plans to become a goddess. [New Mutants (3rd series) #6-8]
Magma had to remain in her molten state for a number of days, long enough for her body to heal itself. Dr. Nemesis even built her a vat of molten lava for her to bathe in to aid in her recovery. As she was bathing, Sam approached her and explained how she had been saved, and that Sunspot had seemed particularly worried about her. Amara had begun to pick up on Bobby’s growing affection of her too, but shut Sam down when he brought it up.
Despite most of Selene’s resurrected army returning to their graves, Cypher was a different matter. His power over language, as well as some help from Warlock, allowed him to overcome the TO virus and Selene’s influence. The X-Men saw no threat from him and his first action was to try to speak to Amara. Still recovering from her ordeal, she immediately dismissed him, although she knew she would have to speak to him at some point.
Even though she was wary of him, she later sought him out, so that he could have his say. Much as when she wasn’t quite sure about Illyana, there was something about Cypher’s demeanor that unnerved her. When he tried to explain his actions, she backed off, still not fully trusting him. Knowing no other way to explain himself, he made up a language that he knew only she would understand and spoke to her. His exact words are a mystery but whatever he said earned Amara’s forgiveness and trust once more. [New Mutants (3rd series) #9]
Magma’s powers and experience made her a key player for Cyclops on Utopia, as the island often came under attack. When the former futuristic Sentinel called Bastion trapped Utopia under a forcefield and assaulted the X-Men with his forces, Amara found herself on the front line alongside the other heavy hitters. [Second Coming crossover]
Since travelling from the future, Magik had remained secretive as to what tragedy would befall the X-Men that caused her to come to the past to try and alter events. One evening, when Amara and the rest of the team were on a much-needed break, Magik was alerted to the fact Pixie had been kidnapped and taken to Limbo. Magik explained that this event was the beginning of the end, as a group of men were about to unleash the Elder Gods from Limbo, which would destroy all worlds. Magma and the rest barely had time to question Magik as she teleported them all to Limbo to fight the threat. Once in Limbo, Amara demanded answer from Magik and so the sorceress explained that the men had kidnapped Pixie in order to extract a piece of her soul to complete the Bloodstone Amulet. On Earth, they would only have an hour to stop them, but in Limbo it would be two weeks due to the way time worked there.
Over the next few weeks, Amara and the team travelled through Limbo in search of Pixie. They eventually found a military base, which had been set up to illegally experiment on the babies the New Mutants saved from Sinister and Madelyne Pryor many years before. The babies had all grown to adulthood due to the time difference between Earth and Limbo, and they had all developed powers. Despite the New Mutants’ years of training, they found themselves outnumbered and outgunned. Amara was the last one standing and she declared she would burn the place to the ground before being captured. However, even she wasn’t strong enough to withstand their assault and she was knocked out along with the rest of her team.
Amara was hit hard and remained unconscious for quite a while, which worried Sunspot, who was sharing her cell. She eventually woke to find it was too late to stop the Elder Gods from being released. They were pouring out of a portal into Limbo and, despite the X-Men’s presence, they could not be stopped. Magma spotted Magik riding a demon high above in the sky, and realized that it was the version that had yet to travel back in time and warn everyone of the threat. She realized that she needed to meet with this version of Magik, so that she could give her the idea of travelling back in time. Sunspot was against this plan, as he knew that it would lead to Amara’s death, just as Magik had explained when she first arrived. Amara overruled him though, as she knew that any hope of winning depended on Magik getting the message. However, she hadn’t counted on the fact that the version of Magik who had already travelled back in time had been manipulating everyone all along, purely so they could win. Magik unleashed Legion on the Elder Gods and literally wiped them from existence, saving everyone’s lives and ending the threat. Amara had been spared a gruesome death but the New Mutants were in disarray. In the aftermath, Amara tended to an injured Sunspot, and the two seemed to be growing closer. [New Mutants (3rd series) #15-21]