Skids enters this window beside Rusty in government custody. Her field can protect them from an immediate attack, but it cannot make the authorities fair, restore their missing…

Skids enters this window beside Rusty in government custody. Her field can protect them from an immediate attack, but it cannot make the authorities fair, restore their missing teammates or offer a dependable route back to ordinary life. That is the background to #87, when the Mutant Liberation Front breaks them out. The action occurs in a prison-hospital setting, with Rusty injured and armed guards refusing to let the pair escape. Sally has to make a decision inside that crisis, rather than calmly choose between several trustworthy offers of help. Her protectiveness toward Rusty remains the center of the scene. They have survived the preceding issues together, and she has seen how little credit he receives for trying to do the right thing. It makes sense that she would judge the people around them by what they are doing now, especially when someone is aiming a weapon at him. The rescue takes her out of the New Mutants' immediate circle just as Cable is entering the book. She is an outgoing member at the boundary, not a regular participant in his later training sessions. Keeping those roles separate avoids turning the whole #87–100 stretch into a lineup that never existed at once. There is still an emotional connection to the team she has left. The others return from Asgard expecting to find their friends, and instead have to piece together what happened while they were gone. Sally's absence is part of the cost of that separation. Her story here ends with a troubling new dependency. The MLF has provided the escape the established heroes could not arrange in time. What Sally can know about that rescue, and what readers may learn in later stories, should be kept apart.