X-Cutioner's Song starts with a bang. Professor X delivers a speech after a Lila Cheney concert in Central Park as Gambit and Storm look on. Cable, or someone who looks like him, emerges from the crowd and shoots the Professor and teleports away saying, "The world will know me as the man who saved tomorrow."
Elsewhere, Caliban, War, and Famine attack and abduct Cyclops and Jean Grey in the name of Apocalypse.
Story continues in X-Factor #84.
Mistake: X-Force's home is listed as being in New Mexico. It is really in Arizona.
Synopsis
Archangel, with a white face, picks up the newly promoted Sergeant Jones in a limo for a date at the park. They are going to see the One World Harmony concert. It doesn't take Archangel long to put on the moves, as the two are soon making out. The driver slyly rolls the partition up.
At the park, Bishop fumes at how little protection the X-Men are able to afford Professor Xavier. They are all spread out while 75 thousand people swarm the park. Rogue assures him that the X-Men have done just fine in the past. Feeling her coldness, Bishop asks if she is still peeved about the pie incident. You can tell that she is.
Backstage, Lila Cheney prepares to perform and has a chat with Professor X. She worries that the masses may not be ready for his message of human and mutant harmony. He tells her, however, that, ready or not, the message must be delivered. Below the stage, two people are quickly setting up a bomb to blow up the Professor. A man, looking remarkably like Cable, steps from the shadows and kills them with a very high-tech gun (only their bones are left). He stands above their bodies and states that despite their deaths, Xavier will die anyway, just not at that moment.
At Harry's Hideaway, Cyclops sits in a booth and contemplates Wolverine's loss of Mariko. He likens it to when he lost Jean. Oddly enough, he then starts fantasizing about Psylocke. Just then, Jean walks in and catches Cyclops in his thoughts. He tries to convince her that he was only thinking of her, but Jean merely quips that you shouldn't lie to a telepath. Across the street, Iceman and Colossus shop at a grocery store. Iceman tries to get Colossus to open up about his brother's suicide, but Colossus states that it is a shameful and personal matter.
Back at the park, Gambit and Storm are teamed together and Gambit tries to humor his old friend. They haven't had much time to talk since the team split into two and Storm is a little concerned about all the secrets in Gambit's life. He is able to shrug off her concerns by getting her to dance with him.
In the Grand Hyatt Hotel, X-Factor sits down to watch the World Harmony Concert. Madrox has a personal conga line going. Strong Guy asks him to keep quiet, but Madrox quips that Strong Guy is feeling a little sensitive since Lila Cheney didn't bother asking him to be her body guard again. In a huff, Strong Guy carries the television to another room. Quicksilver follows him, very quickly.
Back at Harry's Hideaway, Cyclops tries to work his way around being busted thinking about Psylocke. His best argument becomes that Psylocke is a sexy woman and he can't help noticing her. He follows this up, however, with some talk about how Jean is still the only one for him. Just then, Caliban barges through a window.
In the park, Lila finishes up her set and then announces that Professor Xavier will now address the crowd. This is unacceptable. The crowd turns hostile. The Cable figure punches a man for suggesting that Xavier be shot. He then states that it is rare for a man to deliver his own eulogy.
As Iceman and Colossus walk out of the grocery store they see a crowd bursting from Harry's Hideaway. They immediately transform to help in whatever way they can. They are waylaid, however, by War and Famine, two of the Horsemen of Apocalypse.
Back at the park, Xavier begins a speech about how everyone should be able to coexist: blacks, whites, Jews, homosexuals, and even mutants. Despite his openness and rhetoric, the crowd is still not convinced. The Professor is then shot with a very powerful gun in the chest. As he lies in his blood, the smoking gun is held by the man who looks like Cable. This man claims that he has just saved tomorrow.
At Harry's Hideaway, Cyclops and Jean can't help but notice that Caliban is stronger and not as susceptible to their attacks. He tells the two that he is now to be called Death, another Horseman of Apocalypse. The two are subdued as the walls of the bar come crashing down. Outside, Famine tries to feed off of Colossus in his metallic state. With nothing to suck from him, her powers rebound and she feeds off herself. War, enraged, charges Colossus, who simply knocks the crap out of him. The two Horsemen retreat and the two mutants note that there is no sign of Cyclops or Jean.
Back at the park, amidst the pandemonium, Archangel bursts forth from his suit. His image inducer off, he takes on the appearance of the blue angel of death. Just as he fires some of his razor feathers, the Cable figure teleports away. Lila yells to the others that they are losing the Professor.
At Camp Verde, the outlaw group called X-Force finishes up their jimmy-rigged television feed. They are anxious to see the concert. Once they finally get in, however, they see the news: the Professor has been shot and their mentor may have been the one to do it.
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