STORY: "X-Cutioner's Song, part 9: Crescendo" (23 pages)  Cyclops and Jean Grey try to escape Stryfe's headquarters. Stryfe shows them an infant resembling the young Nathan Summers, who is connected to his computer system, and challenges them to destroy the compound and him with it, simply by killing the child. Obviously they don't, which bemuses Stryfe. He sends the Dark Riders after them instead, and in the battle they blast a hole through the wall. This is an awfully bad move, since at that moment Wolverine, Cable and Bishop work out that Stryfe's HQ is on the moon.

What you need to know:
Again, this is pretty much all to do with the crossover - there's not much here that really bears on the overall plot. There is plenty more hinting about Scott and Jean's relationship to Cable, but since it's all building up to a climactic revelation (Stryfe's the real Nathan Summers and Cable is a clone) which was reversed a few months later, it's not actually that important to the ongoing storylines.

The story continues in X-Factor #86, X-Men vol 2 #16 and X-Force #18, in which (very, very briefly) Apocalypse cures Xavier of the techno-organic infection Stryfe gave him; Cable, the X-Men and X-Factor trot up to the moon with Apocalypse and have a big fight with Stryfe, during which Apocalypse wanders off on his own and seemingly gets killed by the Dark Riders (he gets better, of course); Cable and Stryfe have a big fight in which it's revealed that Stryfe is the real Nathan Summers and Cable the clone (he isn't, because Marvel changed their minds a few months later); and Cable and Stryfe both disappear into the timestream in a big explosion (from which they both eventually come back). So not much that had a long-term effect, to be honest. Doesn't stop it being a fun story, though.

Comments:
Even as someone who likes X-Cutioner's Song, I've got to admit this one is rather flawed. Aside from a bizarre sequence with Jean forming a "telekinetic line" to swing over a gap (the woman can fly, for heaven's sake!), it's also got Wolverine, Cable and Bishop working out the location of Cable's headquarters through a method best described as blind guesswork. Lobdell fudges it reasonably well, but it's hard to disagree with Peter David's mocking when he picks up the story in X-Factor #86. ("Well, of course. They could be anywhere, so naturally they're on a sphere of airless rock. Makes perfect sense, Logan, you're right.")
 

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X, Archangel and the Beast (all last in X-Force vol 1 #17; all next in X-Factor vol 1 #86, then in X-Men vol 2 #16, then in X-Force vol 1 #18)
Bishop (last in X-Force vol 1 #17; next in X-Factor vol 1 #86, then in X-Men vol 2 #16, then in X-Force vol 1 #18, then in issue #298)
Jean Grey (last in X-Force vol 1 #17; next in X-Factor vol 1 #86, then in X-Men vol 2 #16, then in X-Force vol 1 #18, then in Stryfe's Strike File, then in Wolverine vol 2 #66, then in issue #298)
Storm (last in X-Force vol 1 #17; next in X-Factor vol 1 #86, then in X-Men vol 2 #16, then in X-Force vol 1 #18, then in Wolverine vol 2 #66, then in X-Men vol 1 #17, then in X-Force vol 1 #19, then in issue #298)
Cyclops (last in X-Force vol 1 #17; next in X-Factor vol 1 #86, then in X-Men vol 2 #16, then in X-Force vol 1 #18, then in Stryfe's Strike File, then in flashback in New Warriors vol 1 #31, then in Wolverine vol 2 #66-68, then in X-Men vol 2 #17-19, then in issue #299)
Wolverine (last in X-Force vol 1 #17; next in X-Factor vol 1 #86, then in X-Men vol 2 #16, then in X-Force vol 1 #18, then in Wolverine vol 2 #66-68, then in X-Men vol 2 #17-19, then behind the scenes in issue #299)

GUEST STARS
Cable, the Professor, Polaris, Havok and Cannonball II (all last in X-Force vol 1 #17; all next (the Professor behind the scenes) in X-Factor vol 1 #86)

SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Moira MacTaggert (between X-Force vol 1 #17 and X-Factor vol 1 #86)

VILLAINS
Stryfe and Apocalypse (both between X-Force vol 1 #17 and X-Factor vol 1 #86)
The Dark Riders: Barrage, Foxbat, Gauntlet, Harddrive, Psynapse (behind the scenes) and Tusk (all last in X-Force vol 1 #17; all next in X-Factor vol 2 #86, where all but Barrage and Tusk are behind the scenes)
Zero (between X-Men vol 2 #15-16)

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