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X-Men Pocket Book (UK) Vol 1 22

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Ridin' an iceboard is a blast too...but I don't make a federal case out of it!

—Iceman (Bobby Drake)

Appearing in "The Power and the Pendant!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
X-Men #25

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  • Professor Xavier's Rolls Royce

Synopsis for "The Power and the Pendant!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
X-Men #25

Professor Xavier and the rest of the X-Men are driving Jean Grey back to Metro College after a visit. Along the way, they come across an orphanage that has caught fire. Changing into their X-Men costumes, the mutant heroes work together to save the orphans within from the flames before fire crews can arrive on the scene. With everyone safe and fire fighters putting out the blaze, everyone tries to thank the X-Men for their help but the heroes have disappeared as quickly as they appeared. When they arrive at Metro College, both Scott and Warren take note of Jean's classmate, Ted Roberts, and how he has an obvious interest in her. Scott deals with the idea of trying to get over her while Warren has decided to seek romance elsewhere.

Far away in Central America, a man known as El Tigre leads some men to try and find the hidden pyramid of the Maya god Kukulcán. His guides, two mercenaries named Toloc and Ramon, make no attempt to hide their contempt toward their employer. After digging up the ground near the pyramid for hours, they finally uncover a stone chamber that holds the sacred gold of Kukulcán, a lost treasure that is said to be cursed. While inspecting the golden relics, El Tigre notices a glowing stone that falls out of a goblet. Unaware that it is the Sacred Pendant of Kukulcán and unable to identify the substance from which it was carved, El Tigre stows it in his shirt pocket so he can examine later. That night, as El Tigre sleeps, Toloc and Ramon initially plan to kill him but then decide to instead tie him up so they can force him to help them unearth the rest of the gold before they kill him. However, having been warned by a sixth sense, El Tigre is feigning sleep and he surprises them and himself when his spoken desire that they be entangled by their own ropes comes true as the ropes wind around the two men. With the two would-be killers now bound, El Tigre has them swear their loyalty to him or face death by machete. Later, while stoking the flames of their camp fire, the stone falls out of his pocket, as if it moved of its own accord. When he picks up the pulsating stone, El Tigre discovers that he can now read the Mayan hieroglyphs inscribed on the base of the pyramid. From the inscription, El Tigre learns the story of the Sacred Pendant of Kukulcán and that the part of that enchanted amulet carved from a magic stone that he is holding is the source of his new-found mental powers. When he further reads that whoever possesses both halves of the pendant will enjoy power without limit if he survives its dread curse, the power-hungry El Tigre decides that the full might of the god Kukulcán must be his, curse or no curse, and that nothing will stop him from finding the other half of the pendant.

A few days later in the United States, the X-Men are studying when suddenly the Cerebro alarm goes off, prompting the group to investigate. The Professor decides to go downstairs by using his leg braces, but their power supply fails. He is rescued from a bad fall by special metal tentacles that he had installed into the wall to prevent such an injury. Returned to his wheelchair, the Professor and the X-Men check Cerebro and learn of the coming of a powerful force, which may or may not be a mutant, but which is arriving in New York City.

Cyclops, Beast, Angel, and Iceman then travel to the city to investigate further, as El Tigre and his men are arriving in New York. El Tigre uses his amazing mental powers to compel a cab driver to take them to a nice hotel. As they are being dropped off, Scott spots them and gets a feeling of impending danger from the strangely-garbed men but dismisses the feeling, thinking that he's sounding like a third-rate fortune teller. When Scott returns to the X-Men's hotel room, he learns that the rest of the team was just as fruitless as he was in finding the source of Cerebro's alarm. Deciding to check the newspapers, Scott goes back outside but, while reading and walking, he accidentally bumps into someone which causes his glasses to be knocked askew. Quickly getting his optic blasts under control, Scott has to flee from a group of mutant-haters.

Returning to the hotel room, Scott arrives just in time to watch a TV news report about a strange brawl that broke out in a nearby restaurant. When the report shows as photo three individuals who did not participate in the brawl, Scott recognizes them as the men he saw earlier. Confirming Scott's suspicions that El Tigre is responsible, the Professor transmits instructions via telepathy to his charges on how to deal with the threat. He explains that he had been using his mental powers to track El Tigre and his minions after they left the hotel, fleeing ahead of the police who had tracked them back to their hotel. However, once El Tigre had arrived at the City Museum, he had suddenly detected the Professor's probes and blocked him from monitoring his actions any further. Despite this, the Professor still knows his location and he sends the X-Men there in uniform to confront El Tigre.

The X-Men arrive at the City Museum where they decide to split up and search for El Tigre and his men individually. The Beast runs afoul of animated suits of armor until he is caught up in one of Ramon's bolos and is knocked out. Iceman, while searching an arctic exhibit, is similarly tripped up by rope that is tied across a staircase and crashes into a brick wall. In a prehistoric exhibit, Angel is also downed when he is struck by a blow dart fired by Toloc.

Meanwhile, Cyclops has followed a hunch and gone to the Pre-Colombian wing where he soon spots El Tigre. However, before he can stop the crook, they are both surprised by one of the museum's security guards. El Tigre instantly uses his mental powers to command the guard to keep Cyclops at gunpoint until El Tigre can retrieve the missing half of the pendant. Finding it in a display case, El Tigre smashes through the glass, liberating the fragment he has sought out. Joining the two halves together, El Tigre is suddenly enveloped in a bright flash of light. When the light fades, he is El Tigre no more, as he is now garbed in ancient clothing. He announces that he is now the reincarnation of the Mayan god Kukulcán!

Appearing in "Holocaust!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
X-Men #26

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Synopsis for "Holocaust!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
X-Men #26

Continued from last issue.... Professor X has lost mental contact with the X-Men and, through Cerebro, sees that El Tigre has obtained the second half of a mystical amulet that transforms him into the earthly reincarnation of the Mayan god Kukulcán. Held back by a security guard under Kukulcán's control, Cyclops is forced to use his optic blasts to destroy the guard’s gun, and the shock releases the guard from El Tigre's mental domination. Pushing the guard aside in order to go after his enemy, Cyclops attempts to blast Kukulcán but his optic blast strikes the pendant and is redirected back at him with doubled force, knocking him out.

Kukulcán's hired mercenaries, Toloc and Ramon, enter the room and attempt to take the amulet from Kukulcán's chest so that they might sell it on the black market. The pathetic attempt is easily stopped by Kukulcán who unleashes the energy of the sun itself, striking them with an irresistible wall of heat and force that knocks them senseless. With his new powers, Kukulcán decides that he must return to Santo Rico where he will restore the kingdom of the Maya to its ancestral glory. Traveling to the roof of the museum, he creates a solar energy sphere around himself and uses it to fly back to Central America. While monitoring from afar via his mental powers, the Professor detects that El Tigre has left the area and so he is now able to use his mental powers to revive Iceman, Angel, Beast, and Cyclops. Xavier then orders them to go to Rendezvous Point C and to leave Ramon and Toloc behind for the police.

The next morning, the Professor calls Jean at Metro College to aske her to bring him books about Maya history and legends. Jean is concerned that the Professor chose to call her on the telephone instead of contacting her telepathically, leaving her to wonder if she is still considered part of the X-Men. Later, as Jean checks out books from the college library, Ted Roberts enters the room and introduces her to another student, Calvin Rankin. Jean remembers Rankin from her encounter with him when he became the costumed criminal Mimic. When Rankin mentions that he has the strangest feeling that he's met Jean before and asks if they have, Jean recalls that the Professor had removed his memory of meeting the X-Men so Jean keeps up the ruse and says they haven't met. However, Calvin is secretly sure that he's seen her before and won't rest until he remembers where.

Two hours later, Jean arrives at the X-Mansion where she gives the Professor the books he requested. After looking through them to find any mention of the stolen pendant, the Professor briefs them on the legends of Kukulcán. Xavier tells them that centuries in the past, when the pendant's divine power was misused, it caused a holocaust of violent upheaval that had showered a Maya city with tons of molten lava, an event that modern archeologists, rejecting the legend of a man with the power of a god, had assumed was inspired by a volcanic eruption. With the briefing over, Xavier orders the X-Men to travel to Santo Rico to stop Kukulcán. Jean expresses concern to Scott when she hears that he was injured in battle, but Cyclops has managed to shake off the injuries he sustained battling Kukulcán.

As the X-Men race to Santo Rico in their jet, Kukulcán has already returned to where the pyramid is located and begins to clear it of overgrown vegetation with his vast powers. The first object that he chooses to uncover is the true and ultimate source of all his powers, a gigantic plumed serpent stela with the huge Solar Stone atop it. After using his now-increased powers to clear the pyramids and the city of vegetation, Kukulcán sits upon the pyramid's throne and uses his powers to mentally enslave all those Santo Ricans who are descendants of the ancient Maya and compel them to travel to the restored Maya capital.

After the X-Men arrive in Santo Rico, they set up in a building where the Professor stays while the teens begin traveling upriver to where the jet's portable Cerebro unit indicated Kukulcán is located. Along the way, the X-Men use their powers to avoid attacks from the various wild animals in the region. Their motorized dugout is eventually wrecked in rapids but by then the X-Men are close enough to their destination for the Beast to spot the pyramids from high in a tree. Their presence does not go unnoticed, as a signal from the jungle alerts Kukulcán of the X-Men's arrival. As the X-Men continue their approach, they fall victim to a pit trap covered by grasses and are menaced by a small group of spear-wielding natives. However, this proves to only be a minor setback as Cyclops has Iceman create an ice shield that both protects them from the spears and hides them from view, enabling him to use his optic blast to dig them a tunnel out of danger without their captors seeing. Once they're all free, they knock the natives into their own trap.

Getting past Kukulcán's armed guards, Santo Rican policemen who have fallen under his control, the X-Men try to attack the powerful demi-god but find his powers to be too great for them to face. When Iceman needs to renew his powers, he happens to rest near the Feathered-Serpent idol which leads the Beast to notice that the glowing Solar Stone at its top is made of the same mineral as the pendant and is red-hot, probably because it's absorbing solar energy. Hearing this, Iceman deduces that the stone is El Tigre's power source and he begins using his ice powers to coat it with a thick layer of ice to block the sun's rays. As the other X-Men fight Kukulcán, his sixth sense enables him to evade the Angel's dive-bomb attack, causing Cyclops to accidentally strike Angel with his optic beams, shaking the group’s leader because his worst nightmare has come true; he's harmed one of his friends with his optic blast. Kukulcán then simply blasts Cyclops aside, then sees that Iceman is trying to isolate him from the source of his powers. When Kukulcán tries to stop him with a solar bolt that falls short, he realizes that the mutants have been trying to trick him into using up all his energy. Desperate to stop them, Kukulcán channels all of his might into a solar bolt that he fires at the base of the idol in an attempt to shake Iceman off of it. However, this proves to be Kukulcán's undoing as his blast not only shakes the idol, it also strikes an underground fault line, triggering an earthquake. As the idol begins to crack and break up, the courtyard in which it stands opens up into a yawning abyss which swallows up both the idol and the Solar Stone. Then, as the fissure closes and the city begins to collapse, Kukulcán flees to the temple atop the pyramid where, since the Solar Stone can no longer provide the pendant with power, the god reverts back to being the powerless El Tigre who the Beast has to rescue from the temple. With the city crumbling and aflame, the two X-Men tie up El Tigre and seek out their two comrades. Finding them outside the city, where Cyclops had managed to carry the Angel, Iceman and Beast see that Angel is injured but, before Cyclops can explain what happened, Warren briefly comes around and in a state of delirium accuses Cyclops of blasting him on purpose because he is jealous of Warren's mutual love of Jean before passing out again.

Cyclops knows that this is not true and that Angel is delirious and would like to believe that both Beast and Iceman know this also. However, as they walk silently away from the ruins, the X-Men's brooding leader cannot help but doubt.

Notes

This is a black & white, digest sized Marvel UK reprint title.

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