BIOGRAPHY - Page 10
Shortly after waking up she was alone in a jail cell, Lorna was visited by a man introducing himself as Harrison Snow, who informed her that he was there to make an offer for her join one of their new projects named X-Factor. Lorna took up Snow's offer and her charges were apparently dropped. [X-Factor (1st series) #260]
Harrison Snow was actually the internationally famous CEO of Serval Industries. The company had initially been a successful search engine but, as time went on, they had branched into a plethora of other avenues. X-Factor was to be their first super hero venture and Snow wanted Lorna to lead it. Perhaps feeling she had something to prove, given how things had gone in the past when she lead a team, Lorna readily accepted her first official post as a team leader. Lorna did not join Serval blindly, though, and thoroughly researched the company, a fact which she shared with her first skeptical recruit, Gambit. When Lorna went to introduce Gambit to Snow at the corporate headquarters in Virginia, she was greeted by a guest, her half brother Quicksilver.
Apparently, Quicksilver had tracked her down because he was concerned for her safety after her disappearance and wanted to join X-Factor. Despite her initial reservations and likely seeing him as a potential asset, Lorna accepted Quicksilver's offer to join the team. Quicksilver's recruitment proved to be good timing, as the fledging team was about to set off on their first mission tracking down a scientist called Hoffman, who was experimenting on former mutants.
Unfortunately for Lorna, Hoffman was expecting her team and he quickly managed to separate the trio with elaborate traps. While on her own, Lorna found one of the good doctor's test subjects, the villainous Fatale, and freed her. Though their mission had gone off on a rocky start, the fledgling X-Factor eventually defeated Hoffman. In the aftermath, Fatale wanted to kill Hoffman but Lorna objected and Quicksilver backed her up. When Fatale then realized that Quicksilver was part of the rescue team, she wanted vengeance on his previous actions which had indirectly led to her predicament with Hoffman, but Lorna stood up for her brother, claiming that he had saved their lives now and that they should be grateful. As Fatale left, she promised that she would get even with X-Factor. [All-New X-Factor #1-2]
Since that incident, the team's numbers have expanded. One of these new recruits, former New Mutant member Cypher, came across a web cast of Georgia Dakei, the daughter of media mogul Scott Dakei, a notable anti-mutant activist. In the video the girl expressed concern that she was being held against her will. Cypher pleaded with Lorna to dispatch the team to go rescue the girl. Lorna was unsure but decided that X-Factor would fly the Serval jet to Dakei's headquarters in New Mexico, however when they landed they would only dress in civilian attire to make sure that Serval would not take any bad press if things went sour. When the team arrived, they were immediately met with hostility by Dakei's anti-mutant defense mechanisms, which was nevertheless little match for X-Factor, who found the girl Georgia with relative ease. To their surprise, Lorna and X-Factor soon learned that the girl was not in fact in any danger. Rather, she was a superhuman like themselves and her anti-mutant father had tried to keep her from that knowledge. As tensions escalated and the local authories were called, Harrison Snow arrived on the scene and convinced Scott Dakei, through unknown, means to hand Georgia over to the team. [All-New X-Factor #3-8]
In the aftermath of the rescue mission of Georgia Dakei, Lorna's relationship soured with X-Factor's employer, who even at one point threatened to fire her. Later that day Lorna took Georgia on a tour of Serval, among the locations they visited was the computer center. Serval scientist Doctor Wexler took a sample of Georgia's DNA and discovered that Scott Dakei and his late wife Tammy were not in fact the girl's parents,. Rather, Georgia was the daughter of a woman living in Minneapolis named Dakota Bennett. When Georgia asked to go visit her biological mother, Lorna advised caution due to her own experiences but was convinced by Quicksilver to let him take her. Feeling she had no other option, Lorna complied, although in stark contrast to the earlier incident in New Mexico Lorna asked for Snow's permission, which greatly amused him. Unfortunately, it was as Lorna had feared and, when the team arrived, the mother and daughter reunion was cut short by the villain Memento Mori. As it turned out, Dakota Bennett had been a dark mystic and her “mojo” had someone infected her lover, who had become Momento Mori. Fearing that Mori was a threat to her daughter, Dakota sacrificed herself to destroy him, leaving Georgia in the care of Lorna and the other members of X-Factor. [All-New X-Factor #9-11]
Though they had been active for some weeks, the team had still not yet been announced to the world. As team leader, Lorna was expected to make a speech to the assembled press. However, mid-presentation, she was interrupted by Fatale, making good on her earlier threat. In front of all the assembled journalists, she accused Quicksilver of being a murderer and a thief and of fraud in blaming his crimes on a Skrull impersonator. Lorna again tried to defend her brother's actions from Fatale accusations but this time to no avail. As security was attempting to remove Fatale, Quicksilver stopped them. Echoing the words that his younger sister had said to him during her drunked battle with him at the bar about personal responsibility, Quicksilver confessed to all the crimes Fatale accused him of and invited whatever punishment the world could bring upon him. [All-New X-Factor #12]
In the aftermath of the press conference, Lorna and Gambit met with Snow, who told Lorna that he was strongly considering firing Quicksilver from the team. However, Lorna stood up to Snow stating that, regardless of Quicksilver's crimes, he was her brother and if he went she would dissolve the entire team. With this threat, Snow relented. As Gambit and Lorna left, Gambit told Lorna how impressed he had been with how well she had handled herself with Snow and leading the fledging team. Despite a well known attraction to Gambit, Polaris rebuffed him when he attempted to steal a kiss.