| Synopsis
| - Tracking the Sentinels back to their base to save Bolivar Trask, the X-Men are caught off guard by the bases defenses. The X-Men find the defenses too powerful and Professor X calls for a treat. Planning another strategy, the Professor has Iceman create a glider out of ice that he and Beast will ride, followed by the Angel, in an attempt to sneak into the base. As Cyclops blasts the glider into the air with his optic blast, Hank and Bobby are soon captured by coils that spring out of the defense system and taken prisoner, however Angel follows not far behind, however he's forced to retreat when a flame thrower almost sets him ablaze.
Beast and Iceman are then sealed within a cage and gassed so that the Sentinels can examine them further. Witnessing this, Bolivar Trask denounces the Sentinels plans to take over humanity in order to protect them from the Mutant menace. The Sentinels then take Trask to their creator and the machine he invented to create his Sentinel: The massive Master Mold. Master Mold demands that Trask pledge allegiance to him, or that he will use the weapons cache that Trask had armed them with to destroy half of the United States. When Trask tells the giant robot that the X-Men will stop him, it almost gloats telling Trask that it will examine the two captured Mutants and defeat the others.
Outside of the Sentinel Base, the Professor attempts a different strategy on the Sentinels, knowing that his mental powers have some effect on the robots, he exerts all his will causing the Sentinels controlling the weapons within the pill box to to suddenly shut down leaving the remaining Sentinels incapable of action until they get further orders from Master Mold. As Cyclops, Angel and Marvel Girl break through the defenses to gain entry into the Sentinel Base, the Beast is brought before Master Mold. Master Mold then forces Trask to use a psycho-probe device so that the robot might learn the origins of this Mutant in the hopes of learning a way to defeat Mutants.
Cyclops and the others meanwhile come across a bunch of deactivated Sentinels when they are spotted by one that is still active. With no orders on how to handle the intruders, the Sentinel tells the X-Men to follow it while it goes to get more instructions, the X-Men follow in hopes that it will bring them to it's leader. As Beast recounts how his mutant powers gave him an advantage as a child over school yard bullies, the other X-Men find Iceman. Before they can free Bobby however, they are attacked by a team of Sentinels, which they easily defeat and then free their comrade. With Iceman revived, the X-Men continue their search for Hank and Trask.
Beast continues his tale explaining that in high school his Mutant powers made him a football star, attracting the attention of Professor X who would come to Hank's parents and offer to take Hank into his school to train him in the use of his powers. Hank by this point has not implicated Xavier's affiliation with the X-Men, however Master Mold decides that learning the identity of the X-Men's leader would provide him the key to destroying Mutants, he proves deeper. Monitoring the situation from safety with his mental powers, Professor X sends out his astral form to try and stop Hank from outing him as the X-Men's leader. With the probe stopped, Xavier then attempts to exert his mental will on Master Mold. However, the massive Sentinel detects Xavier's presence and repels his astral form with micro-electric blasts, sending a weakened Xavier to return to his body.
The X-Men meanwhile continue to fight their way through the armies of Sentinels created by Master Mold. Just when they think they have defeated all threats the group is suddenly pinned to the ground by a strong magnetic force. With the X-Men defeated, Master Mold demands that Bolivar create an army of a thousand Sentinels. Trask refuses, and Master Mold orders his minions to grab hold of Trask and prepare to force him to do Master Mold's bidding. Trask comes to the realization that he was a fool in creating the Sentinels because he traded one perceived menace for an all to real one.
This story is continued next issue...
- The X-Men are still recovering from injuries sustained in their battle against the Juggernaut, the Professor examines them and gives all the recovering X-Men a clean bill of health. However, this would only prove to be a minor reprieve for the X-Men, because at that very moment, scientist Bolivar Trask is holding a press conference to denounce the Mutant race as a menace to humanity that must be crushed. The press eats it up and Trask's paranoid rants end up landing on the front pages of newspapers all over America.
Back at the X-Mansion, the X-Men change out of their uniforms and conceal their mutant natures, they prepare to depart on much needed holidays. Jean leaves with Warren, leaving Scott to wonder how he can compete with his rich and handsome teammate for Jean's affections. When Hank and Bobby offer an invite for Scott to join them, Summers declines and departs on his lonesome, passing the newspaper to Professor Xavier before leaving. Opening the paper, Xavier is horrified to find Trask's epitaph against mutants complete with a wild story about how mutants will take over and enslave humanity. Feeling that this will bring about anti-mutant hysteria, the Professor calls the National Television Network to arrange a televised debate between himself and Trask over the supposed Mutant threat.
That night on television, Professor Xavier and Bolivar Trask argue their points to a national television audience, sparking debate all over New York and around the United States. Bolivar offers to the audience a means of defense against the supposed mutant menace by demonstrating his new invention on Xavier , his new robot enforcers the Sentinels. Revealing that he has an army of these robots at his command, Trask orders the begins to order the section leader Sentinel #1. However, things take a unexpected twist when the robot suddenly turns on Trask, stunning him with a ray beam and declaring the Sentinels as superior to humanity. Subduing Xavier and Trask, the Sentinels wait for further orders allowing Professor X to send out a mental summons to his X-Men asking for help.
The first to receive the call are Bobby and Hank who are at Coffee A-Go-Go listening to poetry when they receive the call and spring into action as Iceman and Beast. Warren Worthington also gets the call while sitting down for supper with his parents, and excuses himself from the table to change into Angel and fly off to answer the Professor's summons. Back at the TV studio, the Professor tries to keep the crowd calm with his mental powers but finds the strain incredible. The Sentinels then decide to take their captives to their creators, prompting Trask to try and flee, however he misses a near fatal hit from one of the robots ray beams. Iceman and Beast arrive on the scene and begin trying to take the Sentinels out of commission however Iceman is hit by a ray blast.
Scott, having heard the Professor's summons has taken a cab to the TV studio, however he accidentally drops his ruby quartz glasses causing him to fire an optic blast through the roof of the cab. Regaining his glasses he's chased by an angry mob who has bought into Trask's anti-mutant hysteria. Rushing into the studio and losing the mob, Scott changes into his Cyclops uniform and comes to Beast's aid. Beast is knocked out in their fight against the last standing Sentinel, however before Cyclops can deal with it, it suddenly deactivates on it's own and falls over. Mentally commanding his charges so as not to give away his secret of being a mutant and leader of the X-Men, Xavier orders Cyclops to revive the others and help the people out of the studio so that they might examine the Sentinel and find out what fell it.
The other Sentinels meanwhile have escaped with Trask as their prisoner. Flying away from the studio they come into contact with the Angel. Some of the Sentinels break off to attack him, using a ray that magnetizes his body and he is drawn toward a speeding train and finds himself stuck on it's roof. Coincidentally, Jean Grey happens to be riding this very train to answer the Professors call for help and changes into Marvel Girl to give Angel a helping hand back on his feet.
They join the other X-Men just as the Professor is able to mentally probe the mind of the Sentinel who mumbled the word "Master Mold" before deactivating. With his probe, he learns of the Sentinels secret base and leads the X-Men out to go out and rescue Trask from his wayward inventions.
Meanwhile, at the Sentinels base, Trask demands to know why his inventions have betrayed him, they explain to him that in order to protect humanity from Mutants it must first conquer the human race. Taking Trask into the control room, they are alerted of the X-Men's approach through their sophisticated computer systems. Outside, the X-Men park the Professor's Royals Royce in the location the Sentinel told them that it's comrades were hiding, however all they find is an empty meadow. Suddenly the ground rises up revealing a high tech pill box that fires laser beams at them, catching the X-Men all by surprise.
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