Iceman’s voyage towards the Savage Land has exhausted him, and he now lies unconscious in front of the Savage Land jungle, just outside of the ocean. A wild pterodactyl notices the young boy, and sees in him the perfect prey! The dinosaur attacks but, suddenly, a man starts fighting it with just a stick, and chases it away, wanting to eat Bobby by himself! Karl Lykos moves closer to the fallen X-Man, and recognizes him from their earlier battles. He can sense Bobby’s great mutant energy, and wants to absorb it, but hesitates. A moment later, Karl quickly withdraws, realizing he mustn’t let madness consume himself again, remembering what happens if he allows that to happen.
Elsewhere, in Westchester, New York…
Candy, sitting inside Xavier’s study room, smiles that the Professor can’t do anything about her presence, unless he’s going to reach into her mind with his telepathic powers. She knows he can do that, since Xavier has done it to several other people, like for instance the evil mutant known as Blob. However, Candy is confident Charles won’t do that to her, because, if he does, he’ll have to explain himself to Warren. Unless, of course, Xavier mind wipes his student as well.
The Professor doesn’t want to debate about that right now. Instead, he wants to know why Candy is there. When She is surprised he hasn’t already read that from her mind, Xavier admits that he can do that if he wants, but for some reason he can’t determine the veracity of the thoughts he feels in Candy’s head. He also can’t tell if her thoughts are true, only that she believes them they are. Candy realizes that, in other words, the Professor can’t possibly know if her thoughts are real, or fantasies implanted by some kind of enemy. Candy smiles that the Professor is a little bit paranoia and that, with him setting himself up as the savior of the entire human kind gives him little opportunities to trust people.
At an unknown location in the Savage Land…
Hank wakes up in a hut, though still with an aching head. He finds himself surrounded by a beautiful woman and some natives, who claim that he’s safe, at least as safe as he can be for as long as the storm continues to go on above their heads. Hank remembers the storm, and the heavy landing he took. The woman admits that she was impressed by that heavy landing and, when she saw Hank fainting, she immediately flew him to her hut to investigate. Hank believes the woman has a power of her own to use, and wants to know who she is.
The woman introduces herself as Ororo, and confirms that she flew here on the wings of the wind. A wind which rose at her calling, and obeys at her every command. She demonstrates her power to Hank and makes a wind to demonstrate her point. M’Kumba, one of the natives, warns the goddess to be careful about showing her powers to a stranger. Ororo agrees, but admits it’s hard to her not to use what to her feels like a second nature.
Hank thinks about it when he hears M’Kumba calling Ororo a goddess, hoping he didn’t imagine that word due to his concussion. He finds something strange about all this, about the way he and Ororo are able to speak to each other so readily. He wants to take a few moments to clear his thoughts. He recalls how Professor X sent him and the team away to the Savage Land to make sure that Magneto had really died there during their last confrontation.
Once there, the team discovered a hidden city, which, as it turned out, a surviving Magneto had conquered. Hank also remembers the radioactive lava and how it exploded, which brings him up to this point. Beast now realizes that the radiation also imparted a limited telepathy, making communication possible even between those who spoke different languages. Hank thinks that, since the balloon on which he rode was filled with gases energized by that radiation, it must be some residual effect which allows him to understand things and be understood as well.
Ororo notices Hank being lost in his thoughts, and asks if he’s alright. Hank confirms that he is, but wants to know if Ororo controls the weather, the massive storm is her doing as well. Ororo confirms that the storm started because of her, but currently it has somehow been taken away from her. And she fears what’s going to happen if she doesn’t regain control about the heavy some time soon, because the whole planet might turn up doomed!
Elsewhere in the Savage Land…
A lone Jean tries to call out for Scott, but realizes he can’t answer her because he was still unconscious before they were separated. She decides to try and use her telepathic powers to find him, and luckily succeeds: Scott is not far away from her, only a few hundred meters. But, she also senses that Scott isn’t alone…
A costumed man stands triumphant over a fallen Cyclops, and can feel the great energy that lies within him. However, the man has to admit the energy is different than the one he felt in Ororo. The man realizes that Scott takes his energy directly from the sun itself. Even through the heavy cloud cover, the man can feel the energy stirring within Scott’s cells. He also notices the visor Scott wears, but doesn’t understand what it’s for. He decides to take it off, and immediately Scott realizes a powerful optic blast into the sky!
At that moment…
While Hank tries to explain what he and the other X-Men are all about to Ororo, she iswarned by the other villagers about the optic beams. Hank follows Ororo outside, and realizes that the beams must come from Scott’s eyes, and travels to the location using the trees as a faster way to get there.
Not far away in the skies, Havok, Lorna and Ka-Zar continue their search. Alex continues to tease Lorna about her Magnetrix codename, but she has had about enough of it. They all realize it was a stupid name to begin with, but that doesn’t mean she has to hear about it every two seconds. The plane continues its flight, and they notice a sea of molten lava below them. Also, there are houses down there, or at least something that’s left of them, and people who survived the holocaust. Ka-Zar tells Havok to land the plane so they can go investigate the matter.
As the heroes step out of the plane, they notice that the survivors don’t look too friendly, as they hold clubs ready to defend themselves. Ka-Zar decides to handle things from now on. He mentions that he is the Lord of the Savage Land, and demands to know what has happened. The villages ignore Ka-Zar and even throw a stone against his head! Havok has had enough, and unleashes the powerful amount of his power on the villagers!
Elsewhere in the Savage Land…
The man is impressed by the power Scott has and wants to take advantage of it. Suddenly, Jean shows herself and orders the man to step away from Scott this instant, or else she’ll use her powers. The man is impressed by the power Jean has, but doesn’t think it’ll do much harm to him, thanks to the armor he wears. Jean decides to try it out anyway, but the man was right and knocks Jean out. Beast arrives and quickly joins the battle, hitting the man several times. However, the mn remains unharmed and releases a powerful amount of energy against Beast, which takes him out.
The man laughs, stating that no power is as strong as the elemental forces which he can control. Ororo proudly flies in, correcting that she too controls the elements and that, even though the man has stolen the storm away from her, he has yet himself to face her, a true goddess. The man laughs, not believing that Ororo is a true goddess and claims there isn’t anything supernatural about her powers. He believes that she is just a freak of nature, just like he is. Ororo defends differently. The man remains unimpressed, and releases all of the energy he has against Ororo, which knocks her out. The man triumphs, stating that, if people really believe Ororo is a goddess, they are in for a crisis of faith.
A few moments later…
Ororo wakes up, and finds herself, Jean, Hank and a still unconscious Scott tied up. The evil man stands besides them, and shouts that they are all going to die! Ororo recognizes the place they are trapped in. The man claims that Ororo should know it, as the current dry river bed they are all in was where she stood when she summoned forth the huge storm he seized from her.
He explains that, for long months, the local natives have labored to build a dam, so that the waters Ororo meant to bring them would fill this hollow and create a life-giving reservoir. The man finds it ironic that those same waters will now serve as the instrument of Ororo’s own death, and the world shall begin to learn why he has chosen the name of… Deluge! Deluge flies upwards and uses his powers to make the storm even stronger than it was. The water coming from it fills the lungs of the trapped X-Men, including Ororo, and the entire dam gets filled with water as well. It looks like the X-Men are history…
Meanwhile, in the South Atlantic Ocean...
The trawler guard Jarlson faces the worst storm she has weathered in all her sixty years at the sea. The captain is unsure how to handle the heavy situation, and is informed that sailor Arnstrong has found something. They have fished an unconscious Warren out of the sea! The captain can’t believe it: it’s another angel! He orders the sailors to throw Warren in the lower deck for now, at least until they know what to do about him. The sailors do, and throw him in a cell, together with Avia!
