X-Men 2099 #15

Issue Date: 
December 1994
Story Title: 
Shadows and Lights
Staff: 

John Moore (writer), Ron Lim (pencils), Harry Candelario (inks), Ken Lopez (letters), Tom Smith (colors), Joey Cavalieri (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor-in-chief)

Brief Description: 

Glitterspike kidnaps Rosa, meaning to take care of her and the baby. Rosa doesn’t believe that Glitterspike would do that and they fight in mid-air. Glitterspike loses control and they land hard on the ground, loosing consciousness. When they wake up, they find themselves brought in a dark cave, and are attacked by the Shadow Dancer. Meanwhile, Metalhead, Louise Wyngfoot and Mama Hurricane have begun to search for Rosa. They find a hidden entrance to a cave. As they enter it, they soon find Rosa again. They also find an alien ship. The Shadow Dancer shows up and wants to attack, but Louise calms it down by making it remember the time they shared playing when she was a kid. Glitterspike attacks the Shadow Dancer, wanting to sell it for big money, but the Shadow Dancer mysteriously vanishes. Metalhead points his attention over to Glitterspike, and gets his mimicking powers somehow back. Eddie absorbs the hard metal of the alien ship and, thanks to the dark cave, Glitterspike runs out of light and gives Metalhead the opportunity to defeat him. The mutants leave from the cave and go back downtown, where Louise does another check-up on Rosa’s baby and concludes that it’s still okay. At the same time, Tim convinces Shakti to stay with the X-Men. Krystalin gets a message from her estranged brother that their father has died, and she wants to go to his funeral.

Full Summary: 

Mama Hurricane apologizes for the trouble she got Louise and her town into. Lousie says that it’s okay and tries to tend the unconscious Metalhead. Eddie wakes up and remembers what happened to Rosa and asks where she is. Hurricane informs Eddie that Glitterspike took her away to the hills.

Meanwhile, Glitterspike flies through the skies. Rosa tries to harm Alexi by punching on him, but it doesn’t work. Rosa tells Alexi that he’s got no right to kidnap her. But Alexi says that he does, because she is carrying his child. Alexi says that the Freakshow can’t take care of Rosa like he can. Rosa tells Alexi that the Freakshow care more about her than he ever did, and she isn’t the confused girl she was anymore.

Rosa realizes that she doesn’t have advanced equipment like Alexi, but still has her static interference powers. Rosa uses them on Glitterspike, making him lose control over his flight. Both Rosa and Glitterspike both fall on the hard ground. Rosa hopes that her baby is still okay, but she doesn’t want to let him fall into the hands of this maniac. Rosa notices that Glitterspike is unconscious and tries to run away. But, she is too injured and also loses conscious. From out of the shadows, a creature steps out of his cave and growls.

At the same time, Metalhead, Mama Hurricane and Louise have taken a car and are searching for Rosa. Louise asks Hurricane why Glitterspike took Rosa. Hurricane explains that Glitterspike is a cybernetic hitman, who is genetically bred to process light into energy. Rosa got mixed up with him while she was still a Bioshop guinea pig. When Rosa left him, he went berserk.

An impatient Eddie tells Hurricane to move faster. As Eddie touches the car, he absorbs its metallic properties. Something he hasn’t been able to do since Contagion made him ill.

Meanwhile, Rosa and Glitterspike wake up in a dark cave. They argue about what Rosa has done, but their attention goes elsewhere when a creature growls. Alexi makes some light and it appears that they have been found by the Shadow Dancer! Rosa hopes that it’s harmless, like Louise told her. Alexi doesn’t believe that and attacks the Dancer. The Shadow Dancer vanishes and materializes behind Alexi and punches him. Rosa makes advantage of the fight and tries to escape.

Zhao’s ranch…

Tim enters the lab where Shakti observes the healing process of Zhao’s X-Men. Tim tells Shakti that he noticed that she is avoiding him. Shakti changes the subject and shows that up until now she has been failing to save Zhao’s X-Men. Tim says that he doesn’t care about them, and that he needs Shakti on his side. Tim says that he knows that Shakti is trying to pretend that she doesn’t care about Xi’an’s change, and doesn’t want to believe that he actually joined the Theatre of Pain. But he did. Tim says that he won’t let the dream die to give mutants a better chance in life and begs Shakti to not abandon the X-Men. Shakti tells Tim that he has changed a lot since he was first brought into the X-Men: his fear has been replaced by passion and resolve. “Who would have thought?” Tim laughs. “Xi’an,” Shakti answers. Shakti agrees to stay, but tells Tim that he’ll have to work hard to confident the others of his leadership. Tim is certain that they will come around.

Elswhere in the base, Meanstreak finds Krystalin crying. He asks what’s wrong. Krystalin shows an astral message from her brother, who informs her that her father has died. The man was great, and Krys’ brother wants that his work continues. The funeral will be held on Friday the 16th and, despite their differences, Krys’ brother wants her to be there. Krystalin says that she will go to Oakland and take goodbye from her dad. Meanstreak tells her that if there’s anything he can do, she’ll just have to say it. Krystalin says that there is nothing anyone can do right now.

Meanwhile, Louise says that she has activated a tracking device, installed on Rosa’s nervous system. Metalhead finds a hidden entrance, leading towards a dark cave. Surprised, they also find stairways leading below. Louise believes that her ancestors must have built them and they go down. Deeper inside the cave, Rosa still tries to find a way out of the cave. She enters a huge place, where a broken air cruiser lies. Rosa wonders how it could fly in here. Or maybe it didn’t, and the ship only materialized inside?

Suddenly, Rosa hears footsteps coming closer. It’s Metalhead, Rosa and Louise. Rosa is happy to see them. Rosa thinks that the ship as a Stark/Fujikawa prototype. Eddie doesn’t think so, especially not when they all notice a dead alien sitting in the ship.

The Shadow Dancer shows up, and both Mama Hurricane and Metalhead want to defeat it, but Louise holds them back. Mama Hurricane asks for an explanation. Louise reveals that, for many years, her tribe has told many stories of the Shadow Dancer, a creature that lives in these hills. Some of them have felt the Dancer following them, seen the Dancer out of the corner of their eyes, only to watch him vanish as they turned to look directly at them. Louise knows that this is the Shadow Dancer. Louise asks the Shadow Dancer if she recognizes them from the times they played together when she was a kid. The Shadow Dancer calms down and walks towards the ship, to the alien that was supposedly once his partner. Mama Hurricane believes that they must have stranded here centuries ago.

Glitterspike shows up and attacks the Shadow Dancer, wanting to use it to earn a lot of money. As they fight, the Shadow Dancer vanishes again. Metalhead attacks Glitterspike, absorbing the metal of the alien ship. Eddie slams Alexi down, who runs out of light. Metalhead notices this and defeats Glitterspike.

Later, the mutants exit the cave. Metalhead pushes the rock back before the once hidden entrance. Eddie wonders if the Shadow Dancer would be able to push the rock away again, if he wants to. Mama Hurricane says that she doesn’t believe the alien needs to, seeing how he can vanish like it does. Eddie understands. Afterwards, Louise does another check-up on Rosa’s baby and concludes that it’s okay. Eddie jokes that Rosa has a lousy taste in men. Rosa says that she’s getting better at that…

Epilogue…

Glitterspike tries to find a way out of the cave. He is determined to kill Eddie once he’s out. Suddenly, a growl is heard. Alexi faces the Shadow Dancer once more, who opens his mouth and attacks Glitterspike…

Characters Involved: 

Cerebra, Krystalin, Meanstreak, Skullfire (X-Men 2099)

Mama Hurricane, Metalhead, Rosa Navarro Vasquez (all the Freakshow)

Glitterspike/Alexi Jaeger

Dr. Louise Wingfoot

The Shadow Dancer

Zakarii Ogada (Krystalin’s brother)

Story Notes: 

Contagion touched Metalhead in X-Men 2099 #7, making Eddie lose his mimicking powers.

Stark/Fujikawa, is, or in this timeline was, the company of Tony Stark, who is better known as the armored Avenger, Iron Man.

Issue Information: 
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