Rusty is arrested, but when a prison guard playfully threatens him with deadly harm, he bursts into flames again and escapes.

[3] For a time, they all live upon Ship, a sentient being in the form of a long, rectangular spacecraft that towered over all other Manhattan skyscrapers.

Rusty and the X-Terminators help X-Factor when an old booby-trap activates, threatening Ship's brain with a gigantic bomb.

[5] Rusty himself had gone back into custody at the Navy but willingly goes with the group when he realizes his younger friends, Leech and Artie Maddicks have been captured by demonic forces.

[7] Rusty and Skids help out when long time New Mutants member Danielle Moonstar loses control of her mystical powers.

Part of this conflict involves the ultimate fate of the children Rusty helped rescue; he believes that Freedom Force had wrongfully taken them into custody.

[14] Upon arriving at Avalon, the mutants were taken to "the Savior" (in reality Magneto), who used his powers to undo the brainwashing done to Rusty and Skids.

When X-Force arrived to save their friends, Rusty and Skids decided they would stay with Magneto, feeling that they owed him.

[14] When a mutant body belonging to Holocaust, a "survivor" from the Age of Apocalypse, was discovered floating in space near Avalon, it was brought on board.

While on guard duty watching over the thought-to-be frozen body, Rusty's life force was drained by Holocaust, killing him.