During the beginning of Apocalypse's rise, Magneto approached Japan's greatest heroes, Sunfire and the Silver Samurai, and asked them to work with him and the X-Men to stop Apocalypse. Sunfire accepted the invitation despite his country's isolationist policies, and left his cousin behind. During Apocalypse's attacks on Asia and Europe, Sunfire rushed home to Japan. Magneto had asked Sunfire to wait until after the X-Men helped in Moscow, but Shiro did not. When Sunfire arrived in Japan he found his country in flames and Silver Samurai leading refugees away from Apocalypse.
As the Samurai continued his evacuation, Sunfire ambushed Apocalypse and his forces. Sunfire fought valiantly but could not stand up to the might of both Apocalypse and his son, Nemesis. Sunfire exploded, releasing a nuclear level blast that destroyed most of Apocalypse's Infinites and scorched a huge area of Japan. The blast did not kill Nemesis or Apocalypse, but it allowed Sunfire to escape and provided the Samurai with more time to evacuate Japan. Left as a burnt-out shell, Sunfire was found by the X-Men and taken to safety. While Sunfire healed Magneto created a new suit that would keep him safe from his own powers. Sunfire returned to the X-Men's side soon after and continued to fight Apocalypse's forces. In the days leading up to the end of Apocalypse's reign, Sunfire and Blink discovered a culling in Chicago. Magneto sent a team of X-Men including Sunfire, to investigate and they successfully prevented the culling. The team was also able to discover the location of an Infinite Processing Plant in Indianapolis and they destroyed it.
The team returned to their base of operations in Westchester and found that Magneto and his son had been kidnapped. While some of the team teleported to Apocalypse's base of operations, Sunfire tried to make amends for his failure in Japan and helped to evacuate the areas around New York City.
