Part of the "Inferno" X-Over
Story: Invasion of the Baby-Snatchers (28 pages)
Feature Characters: Leech, Arthur "Artie" Maddicks, Skids (Sally Blevins), Rusty (Russell Collins), Rictor (Julio Esteban Richter), Boom Boom (Tabitha Smith), Wiz Kid (Takeshi "Taki" Matsuya)
Regular Characters:
Guest Stars: X-Factor: Beast, Iceman, Marvel Girl, Cyclops
Villains: Limbo demons including N'Astirh, S'ym, Crotus
Other Characters: Bill, Dr. Gloria Johnson, Lynne Huntington, Muffy, Mrs. Bethel, Ed
Credits:
Writer: Louise Simonson
Pencils: Jon Bogdanove
Inks: Al Williamson, Al Milgrom
Letters: Joe Rosen
Colors: John Wellington
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
Synopsis: NOTE: this is part of the Inferno crossover.
N'Astirh has stirred. S'ym and he fight; S'ym plans to take over Limbo and earth, but is restrained by the Soulsword. Every time Illyana takes it to herself, S'ym's power can grow.
S'ym sends N'Astirh to steal 13 powerful babies, as a sacrifice to open a permanent portal to earth. He shows up in a cemetery, captures Bill and frees the demon within him, then sends all his demons out to find small, powerful humans.
Rusty turns himself over to the navy (having gone AWOL in X-Factor 1), and has a tearful good-bye with Skids.
Rictor, Boom Boom, and Skids go to Phillips Academy, where they meet many snobs.
Artie and Leech are enrolled in St. Simon boarding school, where they befriend Taki, a wheelchair-bound mutant with the ability to create machines. He invents one that measures energy fluctuations, and realizes there is something strange going on. That night, demons try to kidnap Leech and Artie (thinking they qualify as babies). He realizes he can mentally reconfigure his wheelchair, and attacks the goblins with guns blazing, but fizzles out when he gets too close to Leech, and the demons make away with the pair.
Their teachers call the police, and find they can't get through to New York to alert X-Factor. Taki makes his wheelchair a helicopter, flies to Phillips Academy, picks up Skids, Boom Boom, and Rictor, and jets away (fueled by Boom Boom's bombs) to the Navy prison where Rusty is being held. They break in and break him out, even though it's illegal.