In a dungeon in Latveria, Sally Blevins (once known as Skids) and a near-catatonic Locus meet their captor: a 700-year-old sorceress who calls herself Pandemonia. Sally tries to resist, but Pandemonia places her sigil on Sally's forehead enthralling her. The sorceress has been imprisoned there for six centuries, but now in Locus' teleportation power, she has a means of escape to begin a new reign of terror.
In X-Force's San Francisco warehouse headquarters, Tabitha Smith (Meltdown) thinks about Sally, and recalls the team's failed attempt to determine her whereabouts since Sally and Locus disappeared from Las Vegas. Her thoughts are interrupted by a crash outside her room, and she goes to investigate. Tab finds her teammates Bobby DaCosta (Sunspot), Theresa Rourke (Siryn), and James Proudstar, lying about in a daze, with a strange symbol on the foreheads, and Sally standing above them. At an unheard command, Bobby knocks Tab out, and Pandemonia enters.
After having spent a few hours at the beach, the remaining members of X-Force (Sam 'Cannonball' Guthrie, Dani Moonstar and Jesse 'Bedlam' Aaronson) return to the warehouse to find the interior has been transformed into a castle hall. Further inside, they discover the sorceress sitting on a throne, surrounded by their enthralled friends and Locus, all dressed in medieval garb. Pandemonia attacks the trio to put them under her spell, but discovers Dani is protected by the Mark of Asgard and thus, is untouchable. The witch commands her thralls to attack the three, but Sam grabs Dani and Jesse and launches himself and them out of the warehouse.
At a loss for how to battle a sorceress, the trio go to an occult shop, where they meet a customer named Benchly who offers assistance. That aid comes in the form of an address to a mansion where they go and meet Jennifer Kale, a mystic adept eager to help. Jesse describes the sigil on the foreheads of their teammates, and Jennifer soon identifies the witch as Pandemonia.
Soon, Cannonball bursts into the HQ, followed by Moonstar, Bedlam and Jennifer. The mutants take on their friends, and without warning Moonstar's form changes as it did recently in Kentucky. Finding the right moment, Jennifer recites a mystic incantation revealing the witch's true demonic form and releasing X-Force from her spells. Moonstar uses the new energies flowing through her body to attack Pandemonia, giving Jennifer an opening to expel the sorceress from the earthly plane. Refusing to express any gratitude for her rescue, Locus leaves though a teleportation portal. The team then turn their attention to Dani who has still not transformed back to her normal self.
Later, at a Los Angeles hospital, Domino asks a Dr. Leonard about the Aguilar Institute and in response is shown a patient: a bedridden young girl who transforms in to a scaly creature, then dies. Leonard tells Domino the girl is just one of several such children in a test group in the town of Almost Reno, New Mexico.
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