Nate is being pulled in two different directions – Forge wants him to show restraint with his powers and learn how to handle a situation without them, while Essex pushes him further than he’s ready to go. In typical form, Nate is far more attracted to Essex’s way of thinking.
Essex also leads the group to one of Apocalypse’s factories where they discover that Beast is gathering human remains to harvest the materials to help build alpha level mutants. Seeing the carnage, Nate flips out and goes on the attack when they were just supposed to be doing a reconnaissance mission. He manages to make it out of there alive, but not without one of the Madri escaping to go let Apocalypse know about this alpha level telepath. Forge is not happy.
Brute confronts Essex and tells him that he recognizes him, and I don’t know why they’re beating around the bush on this as if we don’t know who the guy with a diamond on his forehead named Essex is. Mr. Sinister is set to attack Brute when Forge comes in and tells him he doesn’t want him as part of their party anymore. Nate meanwhile has grabbed Siryn Sonique and is bringing her via psi-link to Westchester where he saw Magneto last issue. It’s actually baby Charles that discovers their presence, and while Magneto tries to ask who’s there, Sonique breaks the psi-link and sends them back.
And it’s just in time, because Domino and her fellow rogues have arrived to attack the whole group.
I find myself completely uninterested in what is happening here. Clearly Sinister created Nate as an attempt to overthrow Apocalypse, and he’s going to find out that Nate just isn’t that easy to control. On top of the obvious plotting there’s some really weak dialogue and I can’t really enjoy myself at all.
