[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
West Virginia Reel
When Rom departed from Clairton to cleanse the rest of Earth from Dire Wraiths, he left the titanic Torpedo to safeguard the town he had come to love. Like any other human, Torpedo possessed no power to penetrate the Dire Wraiths’ human disguise… until Rom energized his Torpedo-visor.
So one day, Torpedo sees an eerie shape manifesting out of the snow over the old Marks farm. Moments later, the shape solidifies, turning into the horrible shape of the Hybrid. At last he is home, the monster announces. Torpedo flies at it at full speed but Hybrid easily swats him aside. Even the protective Torpedo-suit barely protects the hero from the impact. As the hulking horror closes in on him, Torpedo grasps for a weapon and finds a pitchfork buried in the snow. He throws it at Hybrid at full jet-power. The pitchfork flies faster than the eye can follow, but not as fast as the speed of thought. Hybrid notices the irony. Attacked with the same weapon he used to slay his father. His attempt at destroying him was as pitiful as Torpedo’s. And both shall end with the same result.
Torpedo realizes with fear that Hybrid stopped the pitchfork in midair with his mind. Who or what is he? He is hell on Earth, Hybrid boasts. He shall be the death of him.
Elsewhere, a snowbound West Virginia Highway is being reluctantly cleared by a prison crew. The guard tells them to hurry up. The warden wants a transport through that night.
The transport in question is a Stark Industries super-criminal conveyor, designed by Tony Stark himself. Within it, held in holding tubes, are four members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants: The Blob, Avalanche, Pyro and Destiny. They are to be sent to Windust prison after almost tearing New York apart. Thankfully, they were stopped by the mighty Avengers.
The prisoners working the road begin to slip in the storm. The transport can’t stop in time, threatening to roll over the chained prisoners. That moment, the spaceknight Rom arrives and uses his strength to make the transport shudder to a halt.
Inside, the guards are ready for a possible attempt to free the prisoners. One of them presses a button and the cabin begins to take off into the air. Lifted skywards with her companions, the blind Destiny experiences a momentary twinge of disappointment.
Outside, the guards aim their rifles at Rom, demanding to know who he is and what he is doing here. Rom replies that he wants to know what manner of people put their fellow man in chains, if they are men at all. Rom summons his energy analyzer from subspace. The guards believe that he is pointing a weapon at them and react with fire… to no avail. Panicked, they flee, leaving only Rom and the convicts.
Curious, Rom asks who they are and why they are imprisoned. One of the smarter ones quickly explains that they are slaves, forced to do manual labor for Warden Windust.
Rom is disgusted at the concept of slavery, though he was not aware that this custom still existed. Japes, the smart prisoner, explains that their masters are evil and would have let them die beneath the truck. Convinced, Rom shatters the chains that bind the convicts together. Rom leaves for Windust prison to free the other “slaves.” The convicts take that as their cue to disappear as well.
Miles ahead, the conveyor lands in Windust Maximum security prison. A little later, the guards are in for quite a sight, as they find their main gate demolished by the newly arrived Rom. Horrified, the men sound the alarm.
Moments before, the four imprisoned members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants – Blob, Avalanche, Pyro and Destiny – were ushered into the presence of the Warden of Windust Prison. Thanks to Tony Starks inertia-discs, they are quite helpless, the warden explains to the young woman next to him, addressing her as Dr. Kellogg, a psychologist here to study the psyche of the superhuman criminals.
The warden explains the functions of the discs and a guard shows her the device that controls them. The woman examines the device. The next moment, a heavy southern accent creeps into her voice, as she remarks they can dispense with the charade now. The real Dr Kellogg never made it trough the snow, just as the real Warden Windust is trussed up like a thanksgiving turkey. With a smirk, she deactivates the control device and reminds the guards that the Brotherhood is a sextet.
Free to move, the Bob strikes the guard. The warden transforms into Mystique and takes out he other guards – thankfully with non-lethal bullets. However, there is dissent in the ranks, as Pyro demands to know why Mystique left them to rot for months on Ryker’s Island. Blob chimes in, reminding Mystique that, even when Avalanche busted loose, she didn’t help him. Impatiently, she replies that his acting as a free agent jeopardized her plans.
Suddenly, the alarm is sounded. Pyro fears they have been discovered, but Destiny chimes in that there is another danger to which the guards are reacting outside. Looking through the window, Blob sees a metal man through the snow. Wondering if it is Iron Man, he fears they will have to face the Avengers again. Instead, it is Rom. As he is being fired upon by the guards, he feels all the more that the men he freed were right and that atrocities must be taking place behind those walls.
Inside, Mystique chides the precog Destiny for not anticipating this, before deciding that it doesn’t matter. They will still escape as a team. She orders Rogue, Bob and Pyro to clear a way to Tony Stark’s transport. Wondering who the mechanical warrior is, the Brotherhood members still obey.
Avalanche asks what he is supposed to do. Mystique snarls that he should get down on his knees in eternal gratitude that she even deigns to take him with them after he disobeyed her orders and escaped prison on his own. Destiny reminds her that Avalanche paid for his disobedience when the Hulk shattered both his arms. Which means, Mystique adds, that his earth-moving powers are useless right now.
As the Brotherhood members move out, the other prisoners beg them to free them too. Blob seems willing, until Rogue points out that they are human while the Brotherhood members are Homo superior. Besides, Mystique would skin them for deviating from the plan. Blob snarls back that he won’t take orders from Rogue as well. As the three bicker, they step outside to find Rom.
The space knight introduces himself and asks who they are. Pyro replies that they are the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and he is the only thing standing between them and their means of escape. Will he step aside or must Pyro melt him were he stands?
On the watchtower, the guard fears that Rom is there to assist the Brotherhood, and his colleague intends to shoot the mutants. Rogue notices and alerts Pyro to the danger. His living flame attacks the men and melting weapons drop from blistered hands.
Rom begins to understand: The Brotherhood referred to this place as “prison” and to themselves as evil. According to his memory banks, humans house criminals in prison. Well, ain’t he the smart one, the Blob mocks. What did he think he’d find in there – elves? Rom realizes that the men he freed on the highway duped him.
Rom attacks the Blob, only to find him the proverbial immovable object. The Blob himself is also in for a surprise, as Rom stands up to his blow. Pyro interjects, telling his teammate he is achieving nothing apart from wasting precious time. The Blob reacts annoyed and Pyro blusters his strength is nothing to Pyro’s living flame. To demonstrate, he creates a fireclaw, which he uses to attack Rom, intending to melt him.
The space-knight marvels at the living flame, so similar to that of his fellow spaceknight Firefall. How can the human wield a Galadorian weapon or is this a similar fire of earthly origin? While the Blob nurses his anger about Pyro burning him, Rom becomes desperate, the fire beginning to fuse his circuitry. Despite his pain, he summons his neutralizer from subspace and trains it on Pyro. The mutant is in for a shock, as his fire is snuffed out and he suffers agonizing pain. Rogue runs to her teammate’s side, while Blob just makes a crude joke.
In the meantime, Rom has replaced his neutralizer with his analyzer, intending to check out whether these odd beings are in fact Dire Wraiths. However, he finds them human,… and more than human, reminiscent of the X-Men.
The mutants have no idea what he is doing, but consider it a trap. Rogue, the team’s youngest member who recently permanently absorbed the powers of Ms Marvel, brutally attacks and very quickly finds out that Rom isn’t an armored man, but all machine.
In that moment, the rest of the team exits the building. Mystique orders her foster daughter to finish the robot, as they must reach the air van. Avalanche marvels that he overheard Tony Stark saying the bus was top secret. How does Mystique know about this? Destiny advises him not to delve too deeply into Mystique’s secrets – for his own peace of mind.
Destiny turns to her leader, informing her things won’t go as planned. Before she can explain any further, Avalanche already acts. Despite his shattered arms, he tries to use his powers to move the earth. Due to his lack of control, he ends up attacking Pyro and Blob. Mystique orders him to stop and he collapses from agony.
The effect of Avalanche’s power has caused to hurl Pyro against Rogue and Blob against Rom. The spaceknight reacts quickly. Now that the Blob isn’t standing, he is by no means immovable and Rom’s blow indeed finishes him off. Pyro as well is unconscious. Rogue anxiously asks Mystique what they are supposed to do. Destiny chimes in, announcing that the real warden has been found and untied. Soon, the entire correction force of the prison will be here.
Mystique swears, then announces that they have to cut their losses and run, leaving their male teammates behind. Mystique orders Rogue to carry her and Destiny away. When the girl hesitates over leaving their unconscious teammates behind, Mystique blames their own inability for that and suggests they brood in prison over what it means to be a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Taking off, the teenager wonders wryly whether they shouldn’t just rename themselves the Sisterhood.
Only, when the three women have gone, Rom recovers from his surprise and can’t help but wonder if there is some connection between Mystique and the X-Man, Nightcrawler. But the silver spaceknight gets no chance to pursue that thought before a voice orders him to stand where he is. It is the real warden, whom Mystique impersonated before. While his men are trigger-happy the warden wants to deal with Rom himself. He announces that he has seen some strange things today: a woman who made herself look like him, another woman who flew, a man who hurled fire and more, but none is so strange as Rom. First he frees his prisoners, then he breaks into prison and lastly he prevents a breakout by half of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Just who is he?
Rom introduces himself and explains his earlier mistakes. The other guards ask the warden what to do with Rom. How could they hold him? He reminds his men that thanks to Rom they still have half the Brotherhood. Turning back to Rom, the warden announces that he doubts they could hold him here against his will and he senses that the spaceknight means no harm, so he will let him go. Rom promises to attempt and undo the wrong he caused as he takes off into the still-falling snow.
Many miles away, a still-flying Rogue complains about the snow. Mystique orders her to find shelter, as Destiny is old and easily tired. The precog announces that they will find shelter soon, but they must beware. That moment, Rogue sees a mansion. They land before it and Destiny remarks that there is no one there, and yet… there is someone. Her “sight” has never been so muddled. Still, they must escape this blizzard, Mystique decides. Rogue reminisces that she grew up in a place like this, farther south of course. Is Irenie seeing anything yet? Yes, no. Horror! Horror! the old woman replies.
What horror is there that they can’t face? Mystique ventures. Rogue agrees and reminds the others that she still has the powers she stole from Ms. Marvel, after all. And she fought the Avengers and the metal man at the prison to a standstill. With all that power, what is there for her to be afraid of? she asks as she smashes the door. That, my child, Destiny replies calmly.
The three women are in for a sickening sight, as their senses are overwhelmed by the unholy being that stands before them. Mockingly, the creature asks Destiny if she can guess his name and pronounce it without going mad. Yes! Yes! Horror, they name is Hybrid cries the precog.


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Choosing Sides!
The three female members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants – Mystique, Rogue and Destiny – sought shelter from a blizzard in an abandoned West Virginian Mansion, only to find the Wraith mutant horror named Hybrid waiting for them – turns out the elements were the least of their problems.
Mystique, the Brotherhood’s (or make that now Sisterhood) leader asks the teams precognitive Destiny who or what that thing is. She only knows the future, the blind precog replies, and all she sees is death. His or theirs, asks the team’s youngest member, Rogue. Yours, most assuredly, human, Hybrid goads her. Using the powers she stole recently from Ms. Marvel, Rogue tries to punch him, only to find she may have met her match, as the monster counters her blow and forces her to her knees. Mystique exclaims her foster daughter’s name, while Destiny just repeats the word “death.” Throwing caution to the winds, Mystique attacks Hybrid. Upon touching Hybrid’s ghastly gelatinous flesh, Mystique inexplicably also touches his malevolent inhuman mind. His memories replay before her eyes.
(Hybrid’s memories)
Its father was a Wraith, whose spacecraft had crashed on Earth. He took on human shape and married a woman. At first, it was a pragmatic choice for “Jacob Marks” to further his cover. But he fell in love and a child was born, Jimmy Marks. Jacob was relieved to find his son fully human. He ceased looking for his kinsmen, but they found him and demanded the child. The Wraiths instructed Jimmy in the arcane arts of the Dark Nebula and he learned that he was more than human, more than Wraith… a Hybrid.
His first act of infamy was to slough off his human shape and slay his own parents. Preparing to extend his sway over all humankind, Hybrid met resistance from the Uncanny X-Men and the spaceknight Rom. It was Rom’s neutralizer in the hands of the youngest X-Man, Kitty Pryde, that blasted Hybrid to atoms.
(present)
At that point, the mindmerge between Hybrid and Mystique abruptly breaks off and Hybrid furiously slaps her away. Seeing him hurt Mystique, Rogue punches the ground beneath him, making him topple. She flies Mystique out of harm’s way, but the leader of the Brotherhood has, in the meantime, concluded that Hybrid is some manner of mutants just like them. Destiny agrees. They may have found an ally to fight Rom, who is already looking for them.
Destiny’s words give Hybrid pause. They too have fought Rom who, along with the X-Men, is his most hated foe! Mystique reveals that the X-Men are their enemies too. Hybrid explains that Rom’s neutralizer scattered him to atoms. The pain was almost unbearable but, by sheer force of will, he reconstituted himself. Now, he craves revenge. Mystique proposes an alliance. Hybrid agrees if this means Rom’s death, but Destiny can’t help but wonder how their alliance will fare once victory is theirs. Hybrid’s inhumanness makes the future difficult to foresee.
In Clairton, West Virginia Brock Jones aka the Torpedo finally wakes up. He tells those gathered – members of his family and other citizens of Clairton that know about the Dire Wraiths - how he was flying patrol back in the hills, testing his new Wraith-detector visor when something materialized out of the snow near the old Marks place. Something horrible! He tried to fight it, but the thing tore into him, toyed with him and left him for dead.
Brandy Clark and her fiancé, Steve Jackson, realize that a nightmare has returned to Clairton. Brandy reveals that Rom once found something horrible at the Marks farm, something that killed Jacob, Marjorie and Jimmy Marks. Steve recalls that Rom never told them what he fought, only that he beat it. If that creature has returned, now that Rom is gone…
Steve never gets to finish his sentence, as somebody else announces that the horror will be dealt with. Rom has returned. The spaceknight asks Torpedo to describe his assailant. Big, strong, but he didn’t need to touch him to lay him out in the snow, Clairton’s hero recalls.
(flashback)
Torpedo came at him at full torpedo thrust, but his foe took Brock’s punch and laughed. Then, he went inside Torpedo’s mind. When it was over, Brock almost wished he had killed him. In a way, he had. What else do you call it when someone ravages your soul?
(present)
Was that thing human? Brock asks. Once, Rom replies. The creature was a crossbreed between a human and a Dire Wraith. Its name was Jimmy Marks. It foreswore its humanity when it became Hybrid. Yet if it left Brock for dead, how is it that he is here in the bosom of his family?
Another man makes his presence known to give an explanation. Mack Killburn reveals that he brought him back. He found Torpedo crawling through the snow by the side of the road, as he was driving through the blizzard to get to Clairton to find Rom. Killburn reminds Rom that he is a hack reporter and that he wanted to do a story about the “spaceknight menace.” Only trouble was, nobody would publish it. He continues that he discovered the reason for that.
If Earth became aware of Rom, they’d also become aware of his enemies, the Dire Wraiths. Those shape-shifters have infiltrated the media – they are in positions of power. They kill stories that might give away their existence on Earth and they kill the reporters who write them. Rom’s friends have told him there is a war going on. He wants to enlist.
Rom replies that all are welcome in the fight. His prior errors will not be held against him, as he prays his are not held against him. He has returned to Clairton to correct such an error. Yesterday, not far from there, he released some men who claimed they were being enslaved against their will. He later learned that they were convicted criminals, a menace to society. In addition, three super-powered beings escaped from prison due to his ignorance. They all must be found. But Hybrid is by far the greater peril and must be dealt with first.
The he isn’t back permanently? Brandy Clark asks plaintively, while her fiancé, Steve, is relived by the news. Brock tries to get up, berating himself for being a lousy guardian of the town. Rom might as well have left the girl scouts to look out for the place in his absence. If Rom is going up against Hybrid, he wants to help. As he tries to rise, he shouts in pain and his wife and kids beg him to stay. Rom agrees with them. Torpedo is hurt and Hybrid won’t be affected by his power. Confronting him is a task Rom had better undertake alone.
Must he do everything alone? Brandy asks. He is beginning to accept solitude as his natural state, the spaceknight replies. It doesn’t have to be, she remarks. Steve angrily wonders why she doesn’t just get down on her knees and propose to him. Does she still remember he is her boyfriend? Angered by his own longings for Brandy, Rom leaves.
Not far away, four escaped convicts reach an abandoned house. They spy through the windows to see “broads,” namely Mystique and Destiny. Destiny suddenly reaches for her forehead, announcing that she foresaw death when they first came to this place. That vision is about to come to pass.
The quartet of convicts suddenly is swept off their feet and Hybrid makes his presence known to them. As they call him a monster, Hybrid replies that what he sees in their minds makes monsters too of them. The myriad horrors they have heaped upon their fellow humans matches in obscenity only the horror he is about to inflict on them. They beg him to leave them alive; they will even turn themselves in. He announces that he doesn’t care. He only needs them to test the extent of his powers after his return to Earth.
Manipulated by Hybrid’s mind, the escapees begin to whirl faster and faster in midair until  Hybrid decides it is enough. The three mutant women are in time to witness what he has done. Only skeletons are left of the four men.
Rogue allows herself to be hugged by Mystique, as she asks her what they are doing with that horror. Why shed tears for mere humans? Hybrid asks. Mystique rationalizes it by pointing out that the humans could have served them as all Homo sapiens will one days serve Homo superior. All will serve him, Hybrid corrects her. At least those he allows to live, man and mutant alike. All others are expendable. Rogue realizes that he is talking about them. Mystique announces she will serve nobody and Destiny has another vision, sensing light coming through the darkness. Rom. Then the moment of his revenge draws near, the monster shouts. He instructs the women in what they have to do…
With his Energy Analyzer scanning the area below, Rom is closing in, searching from some Wraith-sign of Hybrid’s presence. He finds something else. He believes it to be a human woman in distress, but soon finds it is Mystique, seemingly badly bruised and beaten. He lands and she welcomes him, explaining that Rogue and Destiny are dead at Hybrid’s hands. However, Rom is suspicious. A moment later, Mystique assumes a healthy form and compliments his perceptiveness. It is no longer necessary to play damsel in distress. She has set Rom up and Rogue attacks from behind with all her strength.
Rom hesitates, asking Rogue why she is attacking. Unlike Mystique, he senses no evil in her. While hitting him again, Rogue playfully replies that he probably says that to all the girls. Rom locks her in a death grip and asks her to be serious. He warns her of Hybrid and the danger he poses. Rogue jokes about him putting the squeeze on her, before contorting in agony a moment later, screaming that he is cracking her spine. Shocked, Rom loosens his grip, but the young mutant nevertheless goes limp in his arms. Concerned, Rom leans closer to find Rogue still very much awake. She tells him that Destiny let her know that he is half human and she intends to put that to the test by using her absorption power on him, via a kiss.
With that kiss, both feel something neither has experienced before. Rom tears her away, cursing her for awakening emotions in him he dare not feel, since he may never be human again. Rogue doesn’t know what to say. She attempted to absorb Rom’s power, only to discover that the portion of humanity grafted to the armor possesses no power, but only a kind of decency which Rogue in her young life never has known. She finds that she likes it.
As both stand awed by the emotional empathy they’ve momentarily shared, Mystique and Destiny encircle Rom and something rises up from the snow embankment behind him, something evil.
Hybrid’s assault comes on many levels, physical, mental, emotional. Touched by the crossbreed’s malevolent evil, the snow whips into a blinding frenzy about Rom as his cyborg circuitry screams under a savage psychic assault.
Rogue announces that they can’t allow Hybrid to hurt Rom. Her foster mother asks if she is mad. That’s precisely what they planned. But Rom’s good… noble, the teenager replies helplessly. So are the Avengers and the X-Men, Mystique reminds her, but they side with humanity against mutantkind. Destiny chimes in. As Hybrid is busy with Rom, his mental blocking of her ability to see the future has waned. She now sees what Hybrid intends for them. He intends to force mutant females to serve as breeders whom Hybrid will use to bring forth a race of super-powered Hybrid beings like himself. Rogue shudders with revulsion and Mystique realizes that Hybrid played them from the first, starting with the unexplained mindmeld when they first met to let the women believe they shared a common goal with him.
Destiny suggests a new plan of action. Mystique decides they leave Hybrid and Rom to destroy each other, while Rogue protests that they must help Rom. Need she remind Rogue that they are evil mutants? Mystique sighs.
However, Destiny takes Rogue’s side. If Hybrid should overcome Rom, he will then turn his powers on them. While the older women still talk, Rogue decides to take action and flies to help Rom, over Mystique’s protests. She is still a child, she protests. True, Destiny remarks, but no matter how hard she might wish otherwise she isn’t her child.
Rogue flies through the blizzard to find that Hybrid has Rom by the throat. Can one choke a robot she wonders, only to correct herself that Rom isn’t a robot. He’s a man, one she wouldn’t mind getting to know better. Rom has called forth his neutralizer and Hybrid scrambles his control over his armor, preventing Rom from even moving his fingers. That moment, Rogue tackles Hybrid from behind, suggesting to Rom they work together. She adds that there is no way she is going to bear babies for an obscenity like Hybrid.
So her teammate has seen the future? Hybrid asks. He lunges for her and touches her face, remarking that the future is foreordained. Rogue gags at Hybrid’s touch to her bare skin. But something else sweeps over her besides nausea. She begins to absorb Hybrids power. She absorbs some of his mental ability to mind-shock him away from her. Then, her body reeling from Hybrid’s obscene touch, Rogue becomes very, very sick.
Rom lifts her chin, telling her she has done enough. He has regained control of his circuitry. The horror shall now answer to him. And that’s the hero they are trying to kill? Rogue wonders aloud, as he flies off to face Hybrid.
Destiny and Mystique join her with the old precog, announcing that Rom will triumph. Mystique sees no reason to stay any longer but Destiny explains that their presence is required to ensure victory.
As Rom trades blows with Hybrid, he asks if there is nothing he won’t sully with his touch. Knowing that he is referring to Rogue, Hybrid retorts that he likes her. He wants her. Her power, coupled with his, will bring forth an invincible race. Hybrid accuses him of being sanctimonious and wanting her as well. He is after all only a man, Hybrid leers, as he seemingly transforms into Rom’s human form. Rom reminds himself that this aspect no longer exists. It was destroyed by Galactus, along with the Spakenight terminator.
Hybrid tries a different tack, now turning into the woman Rom secretly loves, Brandy Clark. “Brandy” comes closer and Rom can’t find it in his heart to kill “her.”
That moment, another Brandy appears, telling Rom that she is the real thing. Hybrid turns back to his true form, angrily hissing, his plan spoiled. The other Brandy takes on her true form as well, that of Mystique. She tells Rom they stand united in a common cause. Then they shall share a common grave, Hybrid threatens. Rom hits him and then uses his Neutralizer on the advancing Hybrid. The monster laughs that he is ready for the weapon this time. His mind is throwing up a forcefield, which protects each of his individual atoms from the effect. Rom can neither banish nor kill him. And suddenly, the Spaceknight knows fear, as he finds himself immobilized and Hybrid slowly forces him to turn the Neutralizer on himself.
Destiny informs her teammates that she has foreseen this moment. It is time for them to act. Mystique tells her young ward, Rogue, that only she can tip the scales against Hybrid. Destiny adds that she must cut Hybrid’s power by absorbing it. Rogue shudders in revulsion at the idea of touching the monster again, but she realizes there is no other way. She takes off her gloves and approaches Hybrid – who is focused on Rom – from behind.
As she lays her hand on him, the absorption process begins. With Hybrid’s concentration broken, Rom is free again. Panicked, Hybrid offers Rogue what she wants: power, a lover, if only she will let him go before Rom trains his weapon on him. Rom screams at Rogue to duck as he shoots Hybrid, this time at the Neutralizer’s full setting. Finally, he succeeds and Hybrid is no more.
Afterwards, Rom turns to the mutant women, remarking that, while they claim to be evil, they nevertheless aided him in defeating the greatest evil of all. Destiny explains that mankind made them evil. They are dedicated only to their own kind. Rom remarks that, according to his analyzer, they share a common humanity with the other denizens of this planet. They should stand with their fellow man against perils like Hybrid and the Dire Wraiths. Mystique shouts that she acted today because their lives were in imminent danger. As for the future, mankind has scorned them, their betters, and will remain their enemy. Destiny admonishes her that, nevertheless, the issues Rom raised must be confronted in the future, but for the moment their steps must take them down different paths.
Only Rogue longingly looks back at Rom and wonders if their paths will cross again. Though he says nothing, it is Rom’s most fervent hope as well.


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Cry, the Mother Country
Rom the Spaceknight stands above a grave in Russia, holding the body of his clone in his arms, with his companion Starshine and the Gremlin at his sides. Rom stares for some time at his clone, his red eyes flicker as he lowers the body of the man who seemed to possess all of his own heart, soul and memories. This is the second time then that Rom has had to lay some portion of his precious humanity to rest. Half of him perished on Galador destroyed along with the Spaceknight who tried to possess it by the planet devourer known as Galactus. Now a copy of Rom perished on Earth, victim of a false promise made by Quasimodo the living computer.
With the clone lowered into the grave, Rom raises a fist into the air and cries ‘Gods of Galador, is there no end to it?’ and with a powerful blast he fires at the ground, sending dirt flying everywhere. Starshine urges Gremlin back, mentioning that she has never seen Rom so agonized before. The Russian asks Starshine if Rom plans to bury them along with the clone. Rom stops and proclaims that the earth can claim he who was born on it. Turning away slightly from his beloved Starshine he admits he is weary, and that he has too little humanity left to lose any more of it.
Starshine walks up to Rom and tells him she is sorry, and that she understands how he feels. Rom realizes that Starshine must, for not too long ago, she herself was human. Calling her by her real name – Brandy – Rom asks Starshine how could she so easily give up her humanity when he would do anything to reclaim his own. Hugging the silver Spaceknight, Starshine tells Rom that she gave up being Brandy Clark to become the cyborg Spaceknight Starshine, because she loves him!
Rom puts his arms around Starshine as the golden Spaceknight tells Rom that she knew he would never love her back while she was human and he a Spaceknight. Rom realizes that since Brandy knew there was little chance of he ever becoming human again, Brandy chose to become like him. An image of their human selves shines in the sky as Starshine proclaims she would make any sacrifice and brave any danger to go through life beside Rom. Rom just whispers Brandy’s name…. While Gremlin looks on with a frown, for he has never witnessed so strong a love, and this is coming from two beings who are no long human! Cynically, he adds that for himself, love has always been unknown.
Rom swears to Starshine that they will both regain their humanity – once Earth is cleansed forever of the dreaded Dire Wraiths! Starshine boasts that whether it takes a year or an eternity, she shall not care, as long as she is with him. Gremlin interrupts the romance and asks about the creatures called the Wraithkind, and whether or not they are the ones he observed aiding Quasimodo. Rom tells Gremlin he is correct, and that there is no adjective too mild to describe the ‘shape-shifting scum of the stars’. Rom tells Gremlin that they came from the Dark Nebula, hoping to extinguish the golden flame of Galador. He reveals that the youth of Galador sacrificed their humanity to become Spaceknights so that they might drive the Wraiths from their beloved Galador, and while they succeeded in saving Galador, the Wraiths fled to other worlds, less capable of defending themselves, worlds such as Earth.
Rom reveals that he and the other Spaceknights knew the war would never truly be over and that they could never reclaim their lost humanity – until the other worlds were cleansed of Wraithkind as Galador was. Gremlin turns away from the Spaceknights, knowing now that the Wraith’s have infiltrated Earth, and are shape-shifters, and are able to take human form. Gremlin believes this explains a lot, before explaining to Rom and Brandy that in the Soviet Union, many have always been suspicious, certain that countless enemies wanted to engulf their nation. Gremlin proclaims that they have even been so paranoid at times that they execute their own people, fearing that foreign enemies have gotten to them.
Gremlin carries on, admitting that the paranoia was self-destructing, depriving them of some of their finest minds. He adds however that he was always left alone because the Soviet State feared him more than any foreign enemy! Recently, Gremlin reveals, that was changed and spies were sent to him, watching his every move and monitoring his research. Gremlin however spied upon the spies and discovered a secret so awesome and unbelievable, that unwilling to accept it, he fled with his knowledge, and for his life.
Clenching his fists, Gremlin tells the Spaceknights that what he learned fits with what they have told him, that the change he detected coming over his comrades was not a manifestation of their usual paranoia. For they were disabling machinery of the State not out of fear of some unknown enemy, but because they themselves were the enemy within! Starshine and Rom realize that it must be Wraiths, for infiltrating a society used to purging itself, and then doing the purging for it! Gremlin doesn’t understand why the Wraiths removed some people who were loyal and served the State well, but Rom informs him that it was probably done to destabilize society, so that the Wraithkind may one day take over!
Meanwhile, in Moscow, in the office of the KGB, the Commissar of State Security looks out the window as he thanks an unseen group of people for responding so promptly to his summons. He adds that the KGB is aware of their hostility to the workings of this particular agency, yet they are still Russians he reminds them. Russians with unique and powerful abilities too, he adds as the uniform-clad man tries to appeal to the unseen group of people’s natural abilities. ‘The Motherland is in grave danger’ he proclaims. Turning slightly, he informs his visitors that a squadron of super-troopers, led by the mighty Devastator met defeat in the Khystym region, also known as “the Dead Zone”, where once before he reminds his visitors, they rescued their nation from destruction.
He turns around fully now to beg to the super powered beings to use their powers to save Mother Russia again! ‘Only the Soviet Super-Soldiers can triumph over the enemy we face now!’ Now in full view, they whom the Commissar of State Security was making such a fuss about, Darkstar! Vanguard! Ursa Major! ‘Will you rush to the aid of your country?’ The always-impulsive Vanguard, sickle and hammer in hand, lunges towards the Commissar, voice raised asking if the arrogance of the State knows no bounds. Nicolai asks why the State asks for their help, when they fear their powers so much and have already tried to destroy them before.
Darkstar, always the voice of reason, tells her brother that the state fears them because it cannot control them. She grabs her brother by his arm and tells him that they have not pledged themselves to serve the State, but Russia itself. The large bear in the room speaks, backing up Laynia, Ursa Major reminds Vanguard that the Motherland is in peril and so they must respond. The Commissar applauds Mikhail Ursus’ patriotism before announcing he will brief them on their mission.
As the powerful group of mutants stands around the Commissar as he reveals that intelligence reported some sort of activity in the “Dead Zone”, and that the squadron of super-troopers sent to investigate never returned. The Commissar tells the Super Soldiers that they suspect an enemy of the State, a deformed genius who is code named “the Gremlin” has been using the Dead Zone as a base. ‘For the sake of the Motherland’ the Commissar puts the guilt trip on the mutants ‘Destroy him…’.
The Commissar leaves to let the powerful mutants consult among themselves, but as he lurches down the Ministry’s halls, a sinister smirk crosses his lips, and an alien shadow is cast upon the wall in place of a human one. The Commissar, though that is not who he truly is, calls the heroes ‘fools’ for being so patriotic, while little do they suspect that victory will not be to rescue Mother Russia, but to destroy both the country, and everyone in it!
Back in the chamber, Vanguard asks his beautiful sister if she has forgotten their oath to never again serve the Soviet State. Laynia looks away, until Nicolai reminds her that their entire lives have been twisted by the State’s lies and distortions. Calmly, Laynia tells Nicolai that she doesn’t need to be reminded of how the State has abused them, adding that from the point of view of those in power, everyone in the State exist to serve the State and be used by the State.
Laynia reminds Nicolai of how the State used their father, Sergei, by securing the services of his scientific genius by lying to him, that they – his own children – had died in childbirth along with his wife. Laynia continues, stating that they as were manifesting their mutant powers they were entrusted into the “care” of Professor Phobos, not to be trained as they thought they were to be, but to be spied on and controlled. Finally, when their real father had assumed the identity of The Presence, attempting to save the State in his own way, the Soviets misunderstood him and set his own children against him.
Mikhail reiterates that the State had involved them in treacherous activities, and then they were turned against the state by their own tutor, Professor Phobos. Darkstar proclaims that the truth has freed them, and now they only serve each other! Major Ursus adds that they serve the Russian people too, and as one of the most powerful mutants in existence unleashes the Darkforce of which she commands she proclaims that the people of Russia cannot be condemned for the crimes of the State. The Darkforce spreads around the room, for lives of the people of Russia Laynia cries, it shall carry them to Khystym, where they will confront whatever dreaded danger awaits them in the Dead Zone.
With that, the living darkness envelopes the trio of mutants and carries them away, as many miles away, a living light heralds the presence of another strange trio. Standing in the snow-covered fields of Khystym, Brandy proclaims that every time she uses Starshine’s power, she is amazed at the things she can do, despite being somewhat drained by the feat. Rom tells Brandy that she grows more and more confident in the use of Galador’s living light. Gremlin stands astonished that Brandy could transmit first his thoughts and then themselves into lightwaves and beam them all to the snow swept wastes of Northern Khystym, he proclaims that the feat is far beyond a science of Earth origin. A science, which is as alien to them as the structure in the distance, whose existence is still only known to a few, even in all of the Soviet Union.
Gremlin reminds the Starknights that it was his own discovery of Wraithkind’s infiltration that caused him to flee for his life, but it was also his discovery of that secret Wraith base that marked him for death! Starshine asks what the Wraiths have built it for, to which Gremlin replies that he doesn’t know. Powering up, Rom tells Gremlin that he now knows why he chose to graft his humanity back into his cyborg armor, for he needed power to destroy the Wraith base! Rom tries to befriend Gremlin by telling him that he is no enemy of the State, despite the innumerable wrongs that the State has inflicted upon him.
Rom calls Gremlin a ‘true son of Earth’ who is determined to cleanse his country of its enemies both indigenous and alien, adding that for that noble feat he surely has the aid of Rom the Spaceknight! Rom unleashes his neutralizer beam across the frozen tundra, aiming for the base within the Dead Zone, his beam is intercepted before striking the target by a pool of darkness that appears from nowhere. Vanguard is the first to emerge from that darkness, calling back to his sister and teammate that they have barely arrived in Khystym and are already under attack! The brash young mutant crosses his hammer and sickle, symbols of the State to which he feels he no longer owes allegiance, across his chest and turns the attack back against Rom.
Rom keels over, as he is knocked back in pain. Starshine rushes to her beloved’s side as Gremlin is amazed that Rom could be struck down by his own neutralizer beam. More so however he is concerned with the fact that the powerful Soviet Super-Soldiers stand between the stricken Spaceknight and the salvation of the Soviet Union! Darkstar professes that her Darkforce has led them to the enemy of the State and his alien allies, while Vanguard decides that they must seek to destroy that secret installation which undoubtedly stands to safeguard the Motherland. Ursa Major however suggests that perhaps the base serves some sinister purpose of the State itself.
Starshine tends to Rom while asking if the super powered beings that materialized are humans or Wraithkind. Rom suggests to Brandy that she use her lighteyes to penetrate the recesses of their opponents’ souls. Taking to the air, Starshine asks if she can detect Wraiths as Rom can with his energy analyzer. Rom calls back that that is one aspect of the living light of Galador. While her teammates comment on Starshine’s powerful glow, Laynia Petrovna takes flight, proclaiming that the light Starshine carries shall be met by her own darkness.
Darkstar calls for the Darkforce to reveal the nature of their enemies, while Starshine notices her opponents are speaking Russian, and cannot understand a word they are saying. As the two young women meet in the air, Starshine realizes that as she wields a living light, her female opponent welds a living darkness – the question being however, which of them is the better? The battle in the sky is a spectacular event as Laynia’s Darkforce reaches out to swallow Starshine’s light, while the light in turn stabs forth to pierce the darkness. The battle almost seems to take place in two planes at once, in the physical realm and in some other, far-removed dimensional realm – the realm of the Darkforce.
There, Darkforce and living light clash, energies ultimately beyond the control of the young women who command them, and both Laynia and Brandy sense that their powers are locked in a struggle of opposites which will not end until they have consumed each other. Worrying about Brandy, Rom regains his strength and goes to aid her, until Ursa Major grabs him from behind and starts to crush him. Ursus realizes that Rom speaks English and wonders why the Gremlin has allied himself with Americans. Rom informs the Major that he can speak whatever language his translator has enabled him to, adding that his true language is Galadorian and that he longs to speak it – as soon as he has cleansed the planet of the Dire Wraiths! Rom escapes Ursus’ grasp, and the bear-man wonders what Rom meant about the Dire Wraiths.
Rom is suddenly struck down by Vanguard who tells him that he understands very little of the English language, so will let his power talk for him, and lunges his sickle at Rom, who is dazed at this second strike. The Gremlin makes his move now, rushing towards the base within the Dead Zone, he wonders if the Super Soldiers defend the base out of some delusion they serve the state or if they are warriors of the Wraiths! Gremlin decides that either way, the purpose of the base needs to be discovered and the base itself destroyed before the purpose is achieved! Major Ursus sees Gremlin leaving and remembers he was the enemy they were dispatched to find, and so he follows him.
Above the battle proper, Starshine unleashed a fury of Living Light, quelling Laynia’s Darkforce. This strikes Laynia herself, and Brandy notices another form leaving Darkstar’s body. The beautiful Russian realizes that the light is dispelling her other, mutant self, but she knows that she is bound to the Darkforce and neither can survive without the other! She calls out for her brother, who upon hearing her plea hurls his hammer at Starshine, knocking her out of the sky.
As Brandy lands in the snow, Rom rushes over to her, threatening Vanguard if he has killed the woman he loves, and unleashes a blast on Nicolai, knocking him down. Darkstar comes to her brother’s aid, using the Darkforce as a shield to protect Vanguard from Rom’s powerful neutralizer weapon, which has been set to kill! Starshine asks Rom if he intends to force their opponents to surrender, or kill them, and the Starknight admits he meant to destroy them for harming her.
Realizing what he was about to do, Rom comes to his senses and replaces his neutralizer with his energy analyzer, to scan the Super Soldiers. The energy analyzer reveals more than Rom expected, firstly that they are not Wraiths like he originally thought, and secondly that Vanguard is bursting with power, while Laynia is a single consciousness symbiotically linked between two energy forms. Brandy asks if they are human, to which Rom replies that they are, but that they are mutants!
Brandy asks if they serve the Wraiths, and Rom suspects they do not, and in Russian he tells the brother and sister that there is no need for them to fight. Vanguard warns Laynia that this is some kind of trick, but Laynia informs the Starknight that her team came here to prevent an enemy of the State from destroying this strategic place. She then asks them how they can not be their enemies when they are allied with one who is. Rom tells the twins that they are misinformed because the Gremlin is not a traitor, nor was the complex built by humans, but by the Dire Wraiths, and he adds that if it is not destroyed then it may bring about the end of their nation.
Before Laynia or Nicolai can respond, someone shouts out to them, asking them to believe him. Turning, they all see Ursa Major, who is badly wounded and bleeding heavily. Ursus tells the twins and Rom and Brandy that pain was the least of the horrors he suffered when he entered the base they came to defend. Ursus loses control over his bear form and becomes human again. Naked, he falls to the snow as Laynia rushes over, asking who hurt him. Mikhail replies that it was creatures he has never seen before, bred with one purpose only – the destruction of the Soviet Union!
Darkstar, Vanguard, Rom and Starshine all see what creatures Ursus was talking about, as white wolves race forward and transform into phantom forms, of which Rom is very familiar with, albino Hellhounds, intent on staining the snow with the blood of heroes!


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Bestiary!
Rom, his lover Starshine and the three Soviet Super Soldiers – Darkstar, her brother Vanguard and Ursa Major – stand in horror in the middle of the Dead Zone in Russia as hell hounds approach. Vanguard asks what they are, and Darkstar wants to know why the are being whipped by Russian soldiers. Trembling in the snow, the wounded Major Ursus informs his teammates that the dog-drivers are not Russian soldiers, nor are they human, as he gathered from his confrontation with them.
The hellhounds lunge for the five heroes with one purpose – to kill them! The baying that the beasts make frightens Starshine, and she takes to the sky with Rom as he informs her that the baying is supposed to disrupt Spaceknight neurocircuitry, the subsequent experience from that is what humans call fear. Rom suggests to Starshine that the best way to deal with fear – whether one is a human or Spaceknight – is to confront it! With that he uses his neutralizer to blast the first hellhound from the sky.
Brandy follows suit and uses her Living Light to destroy one of the Hellhounds, whom as she was told by Rom were actually wolves. Brandy loves animals and is saddened by what the Dire Wraiths did to them. Rom looks over to his lover and admires her for sacrificing her humanity for him, before becoming slightly disturbed at how well she uses the powers she gained when she became a cyborg. This thought preoccupies him when he should be thinking about the battle, and the hellhounds use this moment to attack him by becoming intangible and phasing through his armor, thus disrupting his circuitry. Rom regrets that the Hellhounds may win this day just for their strength in numbers.
Laynia and Nicolai stand their ground as more approach. The twins discuss the reasons the came to Khystym – to safeguard the base from an enemy of the State – and now they learn that this enemy is not their enemy, and that the base must be destroyed! Mikhail Ursus reminds his friends that he has been to the base, and as he transforms back into his bear-form he tells them that what he saw there, was enough to freeze a mans soul. Ursus lunges towards the Wraith, whom Laynia and Nicolai still believe to be Russian soldiers. The wolves attack Ursus, biting into him, but Ursus is stronger and can rip the wolves off him, as he moves forward to the “soldier”.
Ursus leaps into the air and lands on the “soldier”, ripping into him, Ursus proves his point. The twins look on in horror, as the corpse changes shape, for in death, the Wraith’s shed its assumed shape, to return to its true alien form. The powerful twins wonder what it is doing on Russian soil, but Ursus has a more pressing question – why were they, the Soviet Super Soldiers, sent by the KGB to protect an alien form? The corpse of the slain Wraith offers no answer as it crumbles away. Darkstar is furious that they have been lied to again, tricked into serving the State for its own evil purpose, but Mikhail suggests to Laynia that the State might not even know, as these aliens are shape-shifters.
Darkstar unleashes the Darkforce on the approaching wolves, keeping them at bay, as she realizes that Ursa Major is implying that the Commissar of State may have been a Wraith in disguise. Vanguard comes to the conclusion that it is both the Super Soldiers and the State who have been deceived this time, and that starts to slaughter the wolves with his sickle as they approach him, proclaiming too, that whoever was behind this deception will answer to him!
Still being attacked by the hellhounds, Rom sees that the Super Soldiers have discovered the truth, and are now fighting alongside he and Starshine. As hope comes to him, he breaks free from the hellhounds and before they can attack again, he fires four neutralizer beams, and destroys them. Watching the forms fall to the snow, Rom feels sorry for the animals, pawns of the Wraiths, who have suffered by being transformed into weapons of war. Brandy on the other hand, wonders why she should feel sorry for the hellhounds, as they are no more of Earth than she is, as they have both become weapons of war, weapons to be used in battle!
Vanguard, Major Ursus and Darkstar rush forward to join Rom and Starshine, Vanguard somewhat in disbelief still that the Spaceknights fight for Russia, Ursus informs Nicolai that they actually fight for the whole world, while Darkstar proclaims that they too, can be global patriots. Darkstar’s Darkforce feeds on the energies of some of the wolves, thus stopping them from transforming into phantoms, while Vanguards hammer and sickle act like boomerangs as the strike on wolf after another. Major Ursus again uses his physical strength, spilling blood, which stains the pure snow.
The battle rages on, and the wolves and hellhounds eventually all fall. Major Ursus cries for more wolves to slay, while Vanguard tries to tell him that they are all defeated, though Darkstar reminds her team that the wolves masters are still to be accounted for. The five heroes stand before the “soldiers” as Brandy’s lighteyes and Rom’s energy analyzer confirm that which they already know – that those who have assumed the form of Russian soldiers, are indeed, Wraiths.
Now exposed, the Wraiths curse Rom, who replies ‘No, Wraiths…curse you!’ and uses his neutralizer beam, as Brandy uses her living light to destroy the remaining Wraiths, the Wraiths falling into the nether dimension which opens. The three Super Soldiers stand relieved that their land is pure again. Rom notices something wrong with Brandy, and almost scared, she tells him that for the first time, she actually looked into Limbo!
The silver Spaceknight embraces Brandy, telling her that nothing he can say will be able to comfort her, nothing can lessen the horrors she saw. He reminds her that they are engaged in a war for the welfare of her world, and that it is better that the Wraiths should be banished to Limbo as opposed to a mausoleum on Earth. The Russian heroes watch as Rom consoles Starshine, somewhat taken aback that they fight for Earth, despite being alien their fight is now the fight of the Super Soldiers.
Laynia Petrovna agrees with her brother, stating that they have to discover what evil is being created in the citadel within the Dead Zone. Mikhail Ursus reminds Laynia that he might already know, for he has been there and returned to tell his story, which he begins! Ursus reveals that while Laynia and Nicolai were battling the Spaceknights, he followed the Spaceknights ally, the Gremlin, to the base, where he used a laser to carve and entrance for himself. Ursa Major followed the Gremlin stealthily, still believing that the Gremlin was their enemy, and that the base was some sinister design of his own. Major was not ready for the sight which the Gremlin unknowingly led him to – an ice-walled pit, shrouded in mists of scalding steam, and men, shackled together, whipped like cattle, working the machines.
Almost saddened, Mikhail informs the others that it was the aliens who were enslaving their fellow Russians, to bring something from out of the pit. Nicolai Krylenko asks what was in the pit, but Ursus doesn’t know, for he was soon discovered and driven from the complex by a pack of hellhounds, he held them at bay, allowing the Gremlin to penetrate the base, for he had already decided Gremlin was not their enemy. Vanguard proclaims that the State has declared him as one, but his more reasonable sister reminds him that the State has been infiltrated.
Starshine whispers to Rom that she cannot understand Russian, but knows she heard the Super Soldiers mention Gremlin’s name, and as Gremlin saved Rom’s life, he is their ally. Rom points out that Gremlin only saved his life so that in return he could aid him in removing the true enemies of the State. Rom proclaims he will keep his promise to his savior and will defeat the Wraithkind in Russia, and in doing so, hopefully save Gremlins’ life. Darkstar, Rom and Starshine fly towards the citadel, while Vanguard and Ursa Major follow on foot.
The heroes cross the snow quickly, and the walls of the complex are easily broken, but when the arrive at the chamber Mikhail was at with the pit, they are shocked to see those men they came to rescue all dead, lying lifeless around the pit. A Wraith calls down to the super heroes from a platform above the pit, boasting that they are all too late to save anyone or anything, including themselves! At this time, a laser has been fired into the pit also, and a second Wraith raises the securasphere. Rom and Starshine try to fly, but are too late, as a forcefield surrounds the heroes and the pit, trapping them.
Starshine suggests that their combined powers would be enough to free them from the forcefield, Rom agrees, but only if they had time – which they don’t. Darkstar draws everyone’s attention to the pit, and startled, they all witness something rising from it. Vanguard grabs his sister as if she needs to be protected, as they look upon creatures that have not walked the Earth for eons. Prehistoric mammals, among them, a mammoth and a sabretooth tiger. Their bodies not quite whole, as their skeletons can be seen on parts of them. Trapped within the forcefield, there is nothing Rom, Darkstar or the others can do except fight the prehistoric horrors!
Rom flies towards the mammoth, he knows Wraith science and sorcery has created many monsters, but none compare to these! The sabretooth tiger leaps at Starshine, who informs Rom that these creatures are not created, but are prehistoric animals that roamed the Earth in the past. The horror, Brandy adds, is that the Wraiths have somehow thawed the creatures’ frozen remains and made them live again – more savage than ever.
Vanguard hurls his hammer at another beast, proclaiming that when he was a boy he used to read books depicting the days when these creatures roamed Earth, never thinking that one day he would be forced to fight them! Darkstar successfully ensnares a green beast in her Darkforce, as she asks how they will ever be able to rid the world of the Wraiths if they can revive the long unliving?  Ursus pounds a rhino-like creature, suggesting to Laynia that as they fight for their world with such force, the Wraiths will eventually realize how unprofitable it would be to attempt enslaving any of them!
Outside the securasphere, the Wraiths cackle over what they imagine the progress of the battle to be, proud that their science created the forcefield, while their magic reanimated the prehistoric creatures, and together they will slay Rom and his allies! As the securasphere stands, the spells and incantations continue and more monsters rise from the pit. They approach the trapped heroes, and Rom gets his neutralizer beam ready – when suddenly, all the creatures stop and fall over, dead.
Brandy asks Rom what he did, and Nicolai watches astonished as the creatures decompose before his very eyes, as if their incredible age finally caught up with them. Ursus states that he saw Rom level his weapon at the creatures, but hen ever got the chance to fire. On the platform, one of the Wraiths sense that something is wrong, that their plan is failing, and as the forcefield starts to falter, they wonder what is going on.
Across the room, on another platform, the Gremlin makes his presence known, proclaiming he shut their device down, by utilizing the science he discovered in the lab, science, which his mutant mind easily mastered! The Wraiths transform into the phantom forms to use their sorcery more efficiently, but before they can start their incantations, the combined might of Darkforce, Rom’s neutralizer ray, living light, Vanguard’s hammer and machinery hurled by Ursus strike the Wraiths, sending them to Limbo. ‘Khystym is cleansed of Dire Wraiths’ proclaims Rom.
When the heroes gather themselves together and are joined by the Gremlin, Vanguard asks what is to be done about the complex and machinery. Ursus suggests they destroy it, so that if the Wraiths ever return, they will not be able to use it. Gremlin has a better idea, and suggests to the Super Soldiers that they use this complex as a base. Darkstar likes this idea, as their presence would ensure that the Wraiths or the State would never turn the base to evil.
Darkstar proclaims that from here they can defend Russia without the intervention of the State. Vanguard adds that it will be the home the Soviet mutants never possessed. Ursus reminds everyone that Gremlin is a mutant too, and the kind-hearted Laynia offers him a place on the Super Soldiers team. Gremlin reveals he has always been considered a freak, forced by his deformity to work alone, but he tells the Super Soldiers, that if they will have him, he would love to join. Gremlin thanks the Spaceknights, because of them, the Soviet Union can now safeguard its own future.
Farewells are made, and the Spaceknights take their leave, flying out into the snow, Brandy asks Rom where they will go now, and he tells her that they will go wherever the Wraithkind’s evil threatens, wherever Earth is endangered, for there soar the Spaceknights!


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
The Prodigial Son!
A daycare-center in a small, Appalachian town, surrounded by cops and agents, as the alien Dire Wraiths are holding the children inside hostage.
Roma and his ally, Starshine, formerly the human Brandy Clark, set down beside General Merriwether Locklin, commander of the Wraith-Hunter Rangers, and ask what is going on. Locklin relays that SHIELD’s ESPer-unit detected sudden telepathic fearsurge emanating from this city. It fit the pattern established with prior Wraith appearances. The Rangers showed up before the Wraiths could get away. They are still in the daycare center.
Starshine is furious at the news. The Wraiths killed her friends and her family and now they are threatening children? One of the ESPers informs them that the terror in the daycare center is escalating. The Wraiths are about to do something horrible! Starshine has heard enough and flies into the building. Somewhat more cautious, Rom follows.
Inside the daycare center, several Wraiths are holding a classroom hostage. The terrified children are helpless before their unconscious teacher, who was struck down, trying to defend the children. The Wraiths are actually young ones, unsure what to do without the guidance of their elders. They dimly remember their parents leaving them, going off to defend the nest from Rom and Starshine. They recall cowering in the darkness and listening to the elders’ screams … and then hearing only silence. But there were some things the elders did teach them before they disappeared. As the teacher stirs, one Wraith reaches out with its barbed tongue, dives it into the woman’s brain and absorbs her memories and shape, as the woman dies and crumbles to dust.
Now human-shaped, the Wraith announces to the others that it now understands more. It understands why their elders hated humanity, and why humanity hates them. They are races apart, irreconcilable, yet humanity can serve Wraithkind. It turns to the children, announcing that they are going to play a little game of Trick or Treat. They are going to be treated to the privilege of becoming Dire Wraiths and their parents will be tricked into taking the Wraiths into their homes.
The Wraiths prepare to slay the children when Starshine and Rom bust into the room.
Instinctively, the Wraiths use sorcery and Starshine finds her light-eyes blinded by eldritch energy. She lashes out with her living light and burns the Wraith in the teacher’s form to ashes, scaring the children even more. Starshine’s callousness is not lost on Rom, as he sees the traumatized children. He addresses his partner, asking her to restrain her bloodlust and aid him in driving the Wraiths from the classroom. Starshine complies, stating, as long as the Wraiths get killed eventually. The two spaceknights combine their energies to drive the aliens from the room to the playground outside.
With the Wraiths cleared from the room, the Wraith-Hunters swiftly move in to save the children, who are then brought to their parents. Still, the Wraiths are resisting. Directing Starshine’s beams towards Rom, they cause him to drop his Neutralizer.
As one Wraith reaches for the weapon General Locklin shoots it. Rom thanks him but points out that the Wraith couldn’t have wielded the weapon thanks to its safeguards.
The Wraith-Hunters take care of some Wraiths, while one final creature shifts to the shape of a flying Deathwing and takes off. Starshine follows, while Rom warns her that she has never fought a Deathwing before. Starshine angrily tells him to cater to his customary caution, while she finds herself a Wraith to slay. Rom is concerned about the woman he loves and her growing brutality, but says nothing. They follow the Deathwing until it sinks down, exhausted, and asks the spaceknights to kill it.
Does he need an engraved invitation, Starshine asks Rom impatiently. Rom asks her if she doesn’t hear how it sobs and mewls. Like an infant taken too soon from its cradle. And it blames them for its parents’ deaths. He uses his Analyzer on the creature and finds it is indeed no more than a child. A child that has already murdered! Starshine shouts.
While the two spaceknights argue, the Deathwing strikes with fire breath. Starshine has had it and sears the creature with her light eyes. But before she can bring about the Wraith’s demise Rom’s Neutralizer banishes it into Limbo. Starshine calls him mad to show mercy. Rom points out that perhaps it could have been raised to goodness. He once knew a Wraith that turned away from hate and found love. Wanting to hear none of it, Brandy flies away and Rom worries that his beloved Brandy has turned from love to all-consuming hatred.
Rom leaves and, behind him, unnoticed, the doorway opened by his Neutralizer remains open a scant fraction of a second longer than realized or anticipated. In that microsecond, something slips from that other plane of reality to ours. That something is swept southward in the river until it comes to a fervent congregation kneeling in prayer in the river’s sunwashed shoreline.
The reverend is baptizing a young girl in the river, when suddenly his parishioners stare past him into the waters: The reverend turns around seeing a hole opening and the naked figure of a boy appearing in the waters. The preacher helps the boy up and announces that this is a miracle. They take the boy in and the reverend states that he will raise him as a father. At the word ‘father,’ the boy flashes a smile the warmth of which is belied by the cold iciness deep within his eyes.
Several weeks later, on a winding Appalachian highway, there’s a road block, due to a forest fire, and Professor Xavier and several of his pupils – Sam Guthrie, Roberto DaCosta, Rahne Sinclair, Illyana Rasputin and Amara Aquilla, find that they cannot go on. Sam rushes to one of the firemen, full of worry that his hometown is cut off by the fire. The worker tells him that there’s no way anyone can reach Cumberland right now.
Hearing that, Illyana fervently wishes Storm were with them. She could call down rain to extinguish the fire. If Storm still possessed her powers, Xavier thinks sorrowfully. Roberto announces they can wish the X-Men were there or actually do something themselves. He intends to do the latter. Shedding his outer garb to reveal his New Mutants uniform, Sunspot slips into the night to find the firefighters laboring to clear the forest and create a firebreak. Their work goes painfully slow. Turning into his super-powered Sunspot-form he begins to help by slamming trees down without the fire touching him. Sam Guthrie ignites as Cannonball to clear away the dead trees – a job that would have taken hundreds of firefighters hours.
Meanwhile, back at the limousine, Professor X monitors his students’ progress and is satisfied with their results. However, his telepathy has detected a group of firefighters… cut off inside the inferno. Rahne Sinclair offers to find them. She turns into her wolfen form following the fire fighters’ scent of fear. Once having found them, she howls out loud for Xavier and the others to hear.
Xavier tells Illyana Rasputin that the fire has closed in behind Rahne, cutting off her escape route. Only Illyana can save them now. Magik swallows hard. She reminds Xavier that she has little control over her powers. Even if she reaches the men, they might never get back. Xavier assures her he understands her fear, but she is their only hope.
Illyana’s teleport circle whisks her away, just as Wolfsbane reaches the surprised firefighter. Illyana appears out of nowhere, assuring the men the wolf won’t attack. She orders the men to join her in the circle. Moments later, they pass the hellish landscape of Limbo and then the men emerge among the other firefighters, while Rahne and Illyana return to Xavier’s side. Nervously, Illyana asks Xavier where and when she is and he assures her she is back in the same reality from which she teleported, which indicates she is gaining far more control over her powers than she believed.
Rahne reminds him that the fire is still spreading. Xavier turns to Amara. Magma doesn’t know what to do. She cannot put out fire she hasn’t created. Xavier explains that sometimes firefighters use explosives to extinguish fires that are burning out of control. The concussive force of those explosives deprives the fire of oxygen and what is more explosive in nature …
…Than a volcano, Amara finishes his sentence. Magma joins Cannonball and Sunspot at the edge of the firebreak, creating a volcanic explosion that indeed extinguishes the fire. With the fire out, nothing bars their way anymore and they are back on their journey. Rahne, however, takes a last look at a church on the mountainside. It stood right in the center of the fire but it doesn’t look even singed.
The car drives on and none of the mutants see the doors to the church open or the frail old man, who comes stumbling out – the old priest. He mumbles to his non-present flock that the one who comes after him will baptize them with fire. Behind him, the young foundling appears, now also wearing a preacher’s cassock and remarking that the old man taught him well. But not even he can imagine the miracles he is capable of…
On an Appalachian mountaintop, not far off, Rom knees as if in prayer. 200 years he has served his gods well, smiting their enemies – the Dire Wraiths. But his soul is weary from fighting inside this cold, cyborg shell. He would gladly return to Galador and regain his humanity and, as a man again, offer himself to the woman he loves. Said woman, now a spaceknight as well, impatiently asks if he is praying. It will take more than prayer to drive the Dire Wraiths from Earth. Hesitatingly, he follows his gung-ho love.
Later, at the Wraith Hunter Ranger command camp, the two spaceknights discuss recent events with Commander Locklin. They know from the child they saved from the Wraith passenger train massacre that the Wraiths are planning some ultimate monstrosity. But not even her mindlink with the Wraiths can predict where they will strike next.
One of the SHIELD ESPers introduces herself. Donning a helmet to heighten her powers, she starts scanning the countryside to find the Wraiths. Suddenly, her eyes roll back in shock and she is only capable of mouthing “the horror! The horror!”
Starshine wonders how this could happen, as Dr. Strange had imparted sorcerous shielding to the ESPer agents. Rom recalls where he has heard the words before. He realizes it was no Wraith that struck the psychic, but an even deadlier danger.
In Cumberland, Kentucky, a family reunion is taking place, as Sam Guthrie is finally reunited with his mother and his flock of siblings. Sam introduces the Professor and his fellow students and Lucinda Guthrie insists that all of the guests stay at her home or with the neighbors instead of a motel.
During supper Xavier wonders if any of Sam’s younger siblings will also prove to be mutants. Young Jed Guthrie asks his mother what kind of school Sam is attending, while Josh Guthrie is making goo goo eyes at Illyana and Amara. The young New Roman girl remarks that she is surprised at the calm there in face of the forest fire. Mrs. Guthrie explains that the folks who live in coal country have to learn to go on about their business despite their disaster. And such disasters are plentiful, Amara realizes, marveling at the harshness of life here. One of Sam´s younger sisters remarks that it was a miracle that the fire was stopped like that. Nudging Illyana, Roberto whispers that they were the miracle workers and she tells him to shush.
Lucinda points out that the new preacher will probably have a sermon or two to deliver on the subject of the fire and miracles. What happened to Reverend Joad, Sam inquires. He’s been ailing lately, Lucinda explains. He got himself an apprentice to help at the church. The young man is quite a miracle himself. He walked out of a river, stark naked, couldn’t even talk. And now he is spouts scripture like he knew it all his life… All eyes turn towards the church on the hill, but the need to find lodgings for Sam’s friends brings everyone’s attention back to more mundane matters.
Nobody notices how, hours later, Rom and Starshine fly towards the church, curious as the entire mountainside is blackened but the building is unharmed. They scan but find no trace of the foe they are looking for. Using the quiet moment, Rom wants to have a talk with the woman he loves. He reminds her that they are human, too, and that he loves her. When he calls her “Brandy,” she angrily turns aside and orders him to never call her that again. She is Starshine now, not Brandy Clark. The woman he loved no longer lives and why should she? What good was Brandy when the Wraiths came? She reminds him how she was unable to save her family, her fiancé and her friends. She was human and weak and this war they are engaged in will only be won by the strong. She flies ahead and Rom muses that she may be right, but then he cannot help but love a ghost.
 He enters the church and hears a moan in the darkness: ‘the horror… the horror’. Looking into the terror-filled eyes of the old priest, Rom knows that the man has seen his foe. He shouts that the fiend need not hide in darkness for he will find him. Why should he hide? Hybrid asks. He has waited long for them to meet again. The slightest touch from the hellish horror and Rom’s mind is frozen. He cannot move but he can unleash the might of his Neutralizer. Hearing the sound outside, Starshine soars to his side. But the first sight she registers is that of the dying preacher. Hybrid freezes her as well, as he informs her that he has turned Rom’s weapon against himself and banished the spaceknight to Limbo. Shall he slay her as well, he wonders, but then thinks of a crueler torment for his most hated enemy. … namely making the woman Rom loves his mate. From Limbo, Rom watches helplessly
The next morning, Sam Guthrie and his younger brother, Josh, head out hunting for squirrels. Sam reminisces that he and their father used to hunt like this. Josh admits that he doesn’t remember too much about their father. He got too sick to do this with the younger kids and then he died. Fact is, he misses having Sam around more. Sam feels guilty about being away but explains that if he’d gone to college, as he originally wanted to the family wouldn’t have seen much of him either. Luckily, he was smart enough to win a scholarship at Xavier’s.
Josh tells him he knows that Sam’s school is actually a school for mutants. The whole family knows. The little ones even play at being different so that they too can once escape from Cameron County. He wants to get out. But will he ever? Is he “different” like Sam. He has never done anything strange. He’s normal. A dirt-poor hillbilly.
Bitter, Josh aims at a squirrel, when Sam spies something else in his brother’s line of fire. He wrestles the rifle from Josh’s grasp. But the figure, Hybrid in his human form, carrying another continues on his path as if no shots were fired. Sam wonders if his eyes deceive him. He could swear the figure is walking on air.
Soon, all Cameron County knows that Reverend Joad has passed away from a strange and sudden illness and they gather around his open casket, wondering why the corpse looks so old. He was around 40. The new preacher, Joad’s foundling, appears to preside over the funeral and both Xavier and Illyana react startled sensing both power and evil. Xavier is aware that the evil senses his mutant abilities and mocks them. Rahne too is disturbed by an odd scent but.
Later on, they inform the others and Illyana explains that he isn’t a mutant but something else. And he knows about heir powers? Roberto asks. Yes, and he is determined to command them, Xavier fears. Out of earshot, the young preacher monitors every thought that gives rise to the young mutants’ words, while hiding his own thoughts. He smiles.
A short while later, he returns to the church and the paralyzed Starshine. He mocks Rom, who is caught in Limbo and watching. Hybrid reminds Rom of how they first met when he slew his parents, as he changes back to his true form. Rom couldn’t stop him then and he won’t prevent him now from making Rom’s lady his bride.
In the meantime, Rom is attacked by all the Dire Wraiths he had banished to this place.
Wraith magic turned Brandy Clark into Starshine but Hybrid reverses those spells and restores Brandy Clark, dressing her in a red mockery of a wedding dress. He decides to deal with the mutants next, as at his commands the earth opens and swallows the church from sight.
Within the hour, word of the disappearance of the old church stuns a town already grieving over their preacher’s death. They believe that the mine has caused faults. Using his psi-powers to hide his students from the miners, Xavier leads them into the mines. Alongside their mentor, the teenagers delve into the dark tunnels, each alone with their thoughts. Sam is reminded that these mines killed his dad and would have killed him had he not been different. Illyana is reminded of Limbo, Rahne feels like an animal trapped in a cage. Only Amara feels embraced by the earth that give her her powers. Roberto, on the other hand, wonders how long he will survive there, cut off from the source of his power, the sun. And Xavier recalls that he battled the alien Lucifer underground in a battle that lost him his legs. He has recovered, but old fears die hard.
Behind the New Mutants arrives Hybrid, in his guise as a young preacher, telling himself that his wedding entourage has arrived. His best men and the rest of his brides. And with but a thought, Hybrid triggers a cave-in above the mutants, sealing them off from the other minders. Sam panics, remembering all the people he’s known who have died down here. Illyana tries to calm him, while Amara gives them light and Xavier holds the frightened Rahne. Dying in the darkness of a coalmine is the thing Cannonball fears most and he uses this power to launch upwards trying to break through solid rock. He manages several hundred feet. But they had descended too far and Sam falls exhausted.
Amara chides him, reminding him that, with her power, she can burn them a path to the surface easily. Berto tells Amara to dim the lights. She retorts that this isn’t her light. Another is announcing his presence, Xavier states. When their eyes grow used to the brilliance, they see that the cave they are trapped in has become a cavern and that the missing church stands before them. Are they supposed to attend Sunday School, Sunspot asks mockingly. “No whelp, a wedding,” the psychic voice of Hybrid replies, as he attacks Xavier with a brain-blast. Xavier moans that the blast stripped him of his mental power and he had a vision, accompanied with the blast: humanity destroyed, mutantkind enslaved into breeders for…
“Hybrid,” announces the young preacher, who steps out of the church, moments before turning into his mind-numbing true form. He has encountered Xavier’s kind before and he wants his children to possess their powers. The mutants realize that he wants the girls among them. Following Cannonball, the mutants bravely attack and the incapacitated Xavier cannot tell them that they are facing an enemy who once nearly destroyed the X-Men.
Sam finds that his flight ceases in mid-thrust, even as Hybrid boasts about how he killed the reverend who adopted him. Sunspot is encased in rock and Wolfsbane, who leaps at him, is transformed into a girl again. Hybrid turns back into his human form, accusing the pious girl of attacking a preacher. The illusion goes beyond appearances, striking Rahne’s soul and leaving her immobilized by her inner doubts. Hybrid turns to Magma, mocking that she has no doubts, does she? Hybrid seizes control of Magma’s power, threatening to use it to burn through the stone coffin that is encasing Sunspot.
Illyana realizes this and wonders how to stop him. Reading her thoughts, Hybrid mocks that she could asks him nicely… or she could woo his favors with a kiss. Sweeping her off her feet, he suggests that they would make a great match. Evil to evil! Illyana’s revulsion summons a teleportation circle and she disappears. Hybrid turns to the other mutants, whom he now all controls, and orders them to follow him into the church to witness his taking of his bride.
Illyana rematerializes in Limbo, she has no doubt of that, but she never saw the monsters she is seeing now who are attacking that shining silver warrior. Using her magical powers she drives the Dire Wraiths off and hurries to Rom’s side. He thanks her and mentions that he recognizes the costume. He once saved another girl who wore it – Kitty Pryde – from Hybrid. He explains who the Dire Wraiths are and how, while usually he banishes them to Limbo, this time Hybrid banished him there. Illyana muses that this cannot be the Limbo she knows. Rom corrects her that Limbo is less a place than a concept, a timeless stasis field where those within are unable to affect reality. Illyana sadly states that the Limbo she gained her powers in could certainly affect reality. But her friends are in trouble. They’d better get back.
She teleports them back outside the unholy church, which is changing its shape into something horrific and demonic, even as they are watching. Illyana teleports them inside, where they are witness to an unholy ceremony already under way. Illyana recognizes Hybrid as the groom but wonders who the bride is. Seeing Starshine’s abandoned armor on the ground, Rom explains that Brandy, his beloved, was once his sister spaceknight but is now restored to human form.
Brandy  comprehends nothing, as Hybrid draws her closer. He mockingly tells Rom that, while he did not invite him, he might as well watch as he kisses the bride. Repulsed, Rom lunges at him. Hybrid mocks that Rom’s weapons won’t do any good as his powers are growing. He doubts that even Rom’s Neutralizer could banish him now. Eldritch flame, summoned from unholy altars, encircle and burn the silver spaceknight, the flames slowly beginning to sear him. Hybrid mocks that he will name his and Brany’s first child after Rom.
 All but forgotten, Illyana Rasputin summons her Soulsword, the manifestation of her magic, capable of disrupting any kind of spell or magical entity. She stabs Hybrid in the back. As the monster shrieks in pain, Rom shouts at Brandy to awake. His voice reaches through the mists that cloud her mind. With warrior instincts, she intends to help him but then sees her inert armor on the ground, beholds her own human hands and realizes she no longer possesses the power to deal with the horror that would have her as a wife.
While Illyana keeps on fighting him with her sword, Brandy refuses to meekly go to her fate. She catches sight of Rom’s fallen Neutralizer and grabs it. Rom, still bound by the flames implores her not to use it. No human can wield his Neutralizer without incurring grave harm. Brandy ignores him as she trains the weapon on Hybrid and begins to fire.
Hybrid’s ensuing agony allows Xavier to regain his power and he uses it to try and shield Brandy from the pain the Neutralizer causes her. Brandy’s screams echo Hybrid’s but, aided by Professor X, she keeps firing until the hellspawn is no more.
Only then does she collapse into Rom’s arms. He believes her dead and by all rights she should be, but Xavier shared her pain and thus she lives. Muttering that now she no longer can fight by his side, Brandy falls unconscious and Rom thanks the gods for her no longer being a hardened warrior.
Later, on the surface, the mutants find that the town is safe. Sam states that they won’t be able to tell anyone what happened. His little brother, Josh, was right. Sam is different. And being different means you can never go home again. Putting a hand on Sam’s shoulder, Rom tells him that all Earth is his home. He should fight for it and be happy. For you never know how good your home is… until you lose it. With that he takes off and Rahne wonders aloud where he is going. Not home, Xavier replies, but away, to lay claim to a little happiness of his own.
Soon, the silver spaceknight soars over Cameron County hospital, where his lady-love lies drawn and exhausted from her transformation.