Shadowfall

Joy Mercado has arrived in Washington, D.C. to investigate the kidnapping of Spider-Man and learned about a battle at a government facility involving the covert group known as Shadowforce and the mutant agent known as X-Factor.[1] She calls her boss, J. Jonah Jameson, to inform him of this development and that they are being stonewalled by the government.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man has arrived in New York City just in time to stop Mirrorshade before he can murder Flash Thompson. Flash is grateful for the web-slinger coming to his rescue. Spider-Man tells Flash to get to safety while he fights off Mirrorshade. That's when X-Factor arrives to lend the wall-crawler a hand. Watching as Mirrorshade also tries to copy X-Factor's various abilities, Spider-Man deduces that there may be limits to their foe's abilities and comes up with a way to defeat him. However, before he can communicate this to X-Factor, they are ambushed by Airborne who has come to recover her teammate. Havok orders Polaris to follow after them, while the rest of her team and Spider-Man get aboard their ship. Along the way, Havok is contacted by Forge who tells him that Shadowforce had gone back to Project: Homegrown and taken over the facility. They catch up with Polaris to pick her up and head to Washington.

At that moment, Hardtime and his allies watch a news interview with General Macauley Sharpe trying to spin the situation, blaming everything on Shadowforce. Soon, X-Factor and Spider-Man arrive and when government officials try to bar them from entering the facility, they force their way in. Once inside, Spider-Man tells X-Factor that he learned that Shadowforce's powers are artificial, transmitted to their chest harnesses from a central lab. That's when they are ambushed by the villains. With X-Factor clashes with Shadowforce, Spider-Man sneaks away and finds the lab. However, before he can destroy the machine that gives Shadowforce's power he is attacked by the feral Ambush. During the course of the battle, Multiple Man uses his powers to create duplicates in front of Mirrorshade. Attempting to duplicate Multiple Man's is too much for Mirrorshade, killing him in the process. That's when Spider-Man points out the battery packs on Shadowforce's backpacks. X-Factor quickly incapacitates the entire team except for Hardtime, who protects himself with a barrier to shield himself. However, Spider-Man convinces Hardhsell to help them expose the government program that exploited them.

Suddenly, the facility explodes, however, Hardshell shielded everyone from the blast. Then before the press, X-Factor, Spider-Man and Hardtime tell the press the truth about Project: Homegrown. With that, Spider-Man tosses the disc of data into the crowd. Back in New York City, Peter Parker tells Flash Thompson how he went to Washington to cover the Shadowforce scandal. Hearing how General Sharpe is was dishonorably discharged as a result of his involvement. After hearing all this, Flash apologizes to Peter for running out on him at the Boy's Club. Peter is surprised, and wonders if Flash will change in other ways, like ending his obsession with Spider-Man.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, X-Factor (Havok, Polaris, Strong Guy, Multiple Man, Wolfsbane, Forge), J. Jonah Jameson, Joy Mercado, Flash Thompson, Shadowforce (Airborne, Ambush, Firefight, Hardtime, Mirrorshade, Oversize) Macauley Sharpe

Continuity Notes

1. The narrative of this story states that this story takes place prior to X-Factor #100. Chronologically speaking, this story occurs after X-Factor #95. The reason why this is mentioned is that this story was published after X-Factor #100 was issued. In that story, the Multiple Man appeared to die of the Legacy Virus.