When we last saw the New Mutants, they had just defeated the Enchantress and taken over her keep. They would have returned home, if not for the fact Storm was still being held by Loki. In an attempt to find her, Warlock was scouting Asgard's capital city as a bird... totally oblivious to the fact the falcon he'd been playing tag with up there was actually a transformed and mind controlled Storm!
Shooting a techno-organic creature like Warlock with a magic arrow apparently causes full systems failure. Warlock crashed to the ground, shocking his fellow New Mutants. Well, except for one.
But Magik wasn't the only one who felt the changing touch of the golden realm. Dani Moonstar started to settle into her new role as a valkyrie, one of all father Odin's shield maidens. The valkyries are tasked with bringing those who are about to die to Valhalla, the Norse equivalent of heaven. Seeing Doug approach with Dani, the mortally wounded Warlock panicked when he sensed the valkyrie in her and attacked Dani before running away.
Catching up with 'Lock, Doug willingly offers himself to his techno organic friend... sharing his life force to make sure Warlock will have sufficient life energy to repair the damage. Talk about a noble act of self sacrifice... Incidentally, you gotta love the fact that possibly days after being freed from his job as a serve in an Asgardian cantina, Dough still wears that slave collar with the little bell. Lets call it a fashion statement...
And then... The X-men show up.
Well, that was quick...
Loki, blatanty defying his promise not to mess with the X-men, takes out the entire team, the remaining New Mutants and Rahne's boyfriend the wolfprince. He also decides to give them a new... outlook on life.
"It should not be long before such pure and fundamental evil begins to have an effect. Corrupting you, recasting you irrevocably in her... and, of course, MY... image."
He couldn't possibly find time to do it himself, even if he was allowed to by Those Who Sit Above In Shadow. He was after all a little too busy getting ready for his own coronation. With Storm by his side as the new thundergod, Loki'd be ruler of Asgard before the day was out.
Leaving them to slowly marinate in maliciousness, Loki forgot about Karma.
"I must either break Loki's hold on Illyana and possess her now... or never!"
Ow, we all know how this ends, right? Karma succeeds and both X-men and New Mutants team up to stop the coronation and free Storm. Isn't that right, Colossus? Erm, Peter? What are you doing?
"... Because he's Illyana's brother, Peter proved more susceptible to the spell Loki made her cast..."
Sheesh, talk about gratuitous mind tampering for the sake of filling a panel or two. Still, the fight against Loki continues, but it doesn't help matters much that Storm is still firmly under his control and only sees what he wants her to see...
What's worse than Storm powered by Asgardian magic? Why, obviously, an Asgardian powered Storm mind controlled by the same Norse magic.
Only after she almost killed an already mortally wounded Wolverine, Storm was finally able to snap out of it. Kitty Pryde then put an end to Loki's game by threatening to reveal his scheme to all of Asgard, causing the god of mischief to do what all deities do when caught with their pants down: get rid of the evidence.
And that, as they doth sayeth in fair Asgard, art that...
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