Appearances
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- New Mutants
- Avalanche (Lance Alvers) (Joins) (Leaves)
- Iceman (Bobby Drake) (First full appearance)
- Sunspot (Roberto Da Costa)
- Jubilee (Jubilation Lee) (First full appearance)
- Cannonball (Sam Guthrie) (First full appearance)
- Multiple (James Madrox) (First full appearance)
- Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair)
- Magma (Amara Aquilla)
- Berzerker (Ray Crisp)
Other Characters:
Locations:
Vehicles:
- X-Van
- Blackbird
- Scott Summers' Car
- Wolverine's Motorcycle
Synopsis
Avalanche breaks down the Institute gates at night. Alarms go off and the X-Men scramble out of bed to get dressed. Grounds security guns begin firing on Lance, but he uses his powers to wreck them. He meets the X-Men at the front door. Wolverine pops his claws and asks what he wants. Lance tells them he's come to join the X-Men. Kitty asks if he's for real, Wolverine makes a crack about wanting to be the tooth fairy and everyone laughs. Xavier comes out and tells them to give Lance a chance to talk. Inside when they ask Lance why he wants to join the X-Men, he glances at Kit and tells them that it's just time for a change. Xavier agrees to let him join. Scott is shocked, but when he starts to object, Xavier cuts him off and asks Kitty to show Lance to a guest room. When they leave, Scott tells Xavier that Lance wouldn't be there unless he wanted something. Xavier says that what Lance wants is to be near Kitty. He tells Scott that he believes Lance's feelings for Kit to be genuine and that it's a good start. He tells Scott to give him a chance. Kitty shows Lance to his room, but with a somewhat nasty attitude. He unpacks by dumping his duffel into one drawer. Kitty is about to leave when she hesitates. She loses the attitude and tells him that she thinks it's cool that he wants to be an X-man, but that being at Xavier's can be tough. That the other guys aren't going to cut him any slack. Lance tells her he can handle it.
Next they show Lance running through a lot of training sessions with the New Mutants. First session is in the Blackbird. Iceman is flying as the others ride in the back. Lance is pretty nervous. Bobby promptly sends them into a spiralling crash and everyone screams. The simulation shuts down and Bobby comes out pretty proud of himself. He runs up to Wolverine and tells him it took him almost twice as long to crash and burn. Wolverine knocks him down a notch or two and tells him that "hot-dogging" won't cut it. Lance comes out of the simulation looking pretty queasy. Kitty asks him if he's okay and he tells her that he's fine, being an X-Man is a piece of cake. When turns away, he slaps his hand over his mouth and takes off running. Xavier asks Wolverine if he's not being a little hard on Bobby, that he's been known to do some hot-dogging himself. Wolverine tells Xavier that he can walk away from a crash, they can't. Nightcrawler is cleaning in the background and has stopped to eavesdrop, Wolverine tells him to get back to work. Nightcrawler grumbles to himself and asks who wouldn't want to be an X-Man. Next session shows the New Mutants outside. They're supposed to take out some flying saw blades before they hit them. Magma and Bobby both fail and Scott has to blast the blades out of the air. Lance walks up and Scott slaps a hand on his shoulder and tells him that his new uniform looks a lot better than his old "fruit bowl". Then he stands there with this stupid look on his face that (even though I watched the show like 3 times) I still can't figure out what it's supposed to be. Lance gets mad (understandably) and shrugs off Scott's hand. Then he rumbles the training grounds and takes out the blade firing thingies and the target. The New Mutants all gather around Lance congratulating him and Kitty starts giggling. Scott gets mad and leaves.
Next session is in the Danger Room. New Mutants are running a gauntlet. Lance makes it to the end without being hit. He throws his arms up in the air and starts hamming it up. They show Scott, Kurt and Kitty in the control booth. Scott tells Kurt to watch this. They cut back to Lance, who's now waving happily at Kit. Scott sends out a large padded device that knocks Lance to the ground. The New Mutants laugh, but up in the booth Kitty gives Kurt and Scott dirty looks as they high five one another. Next session is outside again. X-Kids are lined up in the pool playing drowning victims. New Mutants are supposed to save them. Wolfsbane goes after Kurt, Bobby saves Evan and Sam (Cannonball) dives in after Kit. Lance is assigned Rogue. He throws out a lifesaver and hits Rogue in the head. She goes underwater. He dives in and catches up to Sam. He hits Sam (and due to the way Sam's powers work), and Sam is "cannonballed" out of the water. Lance surfaces near Kit and she starts giggling. He "saves" her. Scott helps Rogue out of the pool. Sam comes to a crash landing as Scott yells at Lance. He tells him that he's saved the wrong victim and drowned two people doing it. Lance climbs out of the pool with Kit in his arms looking very proud. He says "Yeah, but look who I rescued!" Rogue stomps past them looking very wet and very angry. She calls Lance a creep and knocks him and Kit back into the pool.
Next day as the kids are all loading up to head off to school, Lance tells Scott "nice car." Scott turns to look at his car and realizes that it's been trashed. Lance and the New Mutants drive off. At school the New Mutants tell Lance see ya later. As he's headed down the hallway, he's ambushed by the Brotherhood. Blob slams him into the lockers and they ask where he's been. Tab says that they've heard he's living with the "geek squad". When Lance doesn't deny it, Toad tells him that Mystique is going to "hand you your left arm" when she gets back. Lance tells them that the Brotherhood is finished and Mystique is never coming back. Quicksilver asks him if he's actually becoming an X-Man and Lance says "What if I am?” The Brotherhood come down on him and Lance pushes Toad out of the way and starts to walk off. Tab calls after him and tells him that the X-Men are never going to accept him.
That night at the Institute, Lance wanders into the hall yawning. He seems to be headed for the bathroom when he sees some of the New Mutants (Jubilee, Sam, Bobby and Jamie) sneaking down the hallway. He follows them. In the kitchen, Kit is studying and making her a snack. One of the New Mutants rushes past the door and startles her. She asks if anyone's there, but when no one answers she goes back to her snack. She has to climb under the table to get her pencil and while she's under there, the other New Mutants run past. She phases her head through the top of the table, right over a plate. Lance walks past the kitchen door, and then does a double take. When he sees Kitty 's head on the plate, he passes out. The New Mutants take out the X-Van and wreak general havoc. Bobby stumbles into bed early the next morning, just in time for Xavier to call out all of the New Mutants for a training session. Kurt is out in the hangar, busily scrubbing down the Blackbird as part of his probation. Wolverine gives a lecture on the jet, and then they head out to the garage to drive the X-van. When they get there the van is a wreck. Jamie whispers to Sam that they should say something. Sam elbows Jamie and triggers multiples of him. The multiples stumble into Jubilee and knock her down. Wolverine asks what happened to the van and Scott immediately points a finger at Lance. That night, Jubilee, Sam and Bobby tell Jamie that he can't go out with them again. He makes too much of a crowd. They send Jamie back to bed, then go into Lance's room and ask him along on a "joyride". Jubilee tells him that he's going to get the blame anyway. Lance tells them to forget it, that they've already gotten him in enough trouble. He pulls the blanket over his head and tells them to leave them alone. Bobby says it's his loss that they're taking something bigger and faster. New Mutants head out to the hangar and the Blackbird. Lance sits up in his bed suddenly realizing that they mean the jet. He knocks on Kit's door and when she answers he grabs her arm and takes off. They get to the hangar too late; the New Mutants are already taking off. The jet rolls beneath the walkway that they're standing on. Lance climbs under the handrail and grabs Kit's hand. She asks him what he's doing, but he just tells her to start phasing as he jumps. They phase into the Blackbird, but are thrown around as Bobby bounces it off of the walls. They finally are able to take off and fly through the buildings and then up. Jubilee opens the top hatch and shows off by throwing fireworks into the sky. Kit and Lance are trying to get into the cockpit, but Bobby pushes the jet wide open and they're thrown to the floor again. Kit says that they're in big trouble. She takes Lance's hand and they phase into the cockpit together. She startles Jubilee and one of her fireworks hits the jet's controls. Bobby tells them that he's lost thrust control. Kit tries to radio the Institute, but the radio has been fried too.
They're intercepted by a couple of air force jets. Lance tries to find the P.A. to let them know that they're friendly. Instead he sends out a couple of missiles. The jets aren't hit, but they think that the Blackbird is hostile and return fire. Jubilee climbs out of the hatch and launches some more fireworks. The heat seeking missiles follow them instead and explode mid-air. Sam does some work on the controls and is able to cut propulsion. The jet goes into a free fall and Lance gets sick. Bobby hangs out of the hatch and creates an ice ramp that scoops the jet back into the air. They're able to restart the engines, but more air force jets have arrived. Bobby flies into some caverns/cliff walls to try to lose them, but more missiles are fired. Lance is able to quake the cliff walls and the jets are forced to pull up. But Bobby still isn't able to dodge the missiles. Kitty tells them that she thinks she can lose them. She tells Bobby to fly straight into a mesa. Bobby starts to argue but Kit yells at him to do it. She grabs a hold of the jet and is able to phase the entire Blackbird. They pass safely through the mesa just as the missiles close in on them. The missiles explode on the mesa and the pilots don't believe what they've seen. They call off the chase. Kit collapses from the strain and Lance catches her. They smile at each other as the New Mutants are amazed that she was able to do it. Next day Scott accuses Lance of causing the damage to the jet. Kit tries to step in and defend Lance, but he pulls her back and says that he did it. Just then Bobby admits that Lance is innocent and that they are the ones who really did it. They also admit to trashing the van, Scott's car and Logan's motorcycle. At which point Logan looks like he's going to blow a gasket. Xavier tells them that there was no official mention of the incident. Kurt comes strolling in, saying that all he has to do to finish off his probation is wax the Blackbird. He sees the jet and drops his wax, saying that it's going to take a lot of wax. Xavier tells Kurt that he's officially off probation and Kurt takes off like the proverbial bat. He puts the New Mutants on probation and tells them they can start by cleaning up the Blackbird. Scott tries to lamely apologize to Lance, but Lance slaps away his hand and tells him to forget it. Xavier tries to apologize too, but Lance tells them that he's leaving. Kit asks him to please stay, but he says that the X-Men are too high maintenance and he's going back to live with the Brotherhood. Kit is looking pretty upset as Xavier tells him that he's welcome back if he ever changes his mind. Lance starts to walk away, Kit runs to catch up with him. She kisses him, then rushes back. Lance puts his hand to his cheek where she kissed him and smiles. As Lance leaves, Kit stands back and looks pretty heartbroken.