Wednesday, Nocturne’s Reality, sometime before she became an Exile
Earlier that day, Nocturne complains about her father, Nightcrawler, being so hard on her all the time. T.J. thinks that he doesn’t care about her feelings, that he just wants her to turn into who he thinks she should be instead of letting her discover who she is herself. The truth is, she never told him how she felt and just kept it all bottled up inside and just decided to go all Hiroshima on him after an incident in the Danger Room. Though she regretted every word that came out of her mouth as she spoke them she did need to get out of the mansion to depressurize, but as soon as she left, Cyclops and his band of angry mutants show up ready for a fight, and the situation did some sincere and serious fan-hitting.
Cyclops stands in the new hole he punched through the wall with Rogue, Radioactive Man, Hyve, and White Dwarf. X-Punk’s Beast is easily taken out of the battle by a punch from Armageddon. Cyclops ask Kurt about not getting a hug for him having to come all that way along with his new friends. Kurt stays near Logan as the rest of the mutants have been alerted and have already entered the room ready to fight.
Armageddon, Thunderbird, Warlock, and Trudy stand ready to face off with Cyclops’ “friends.” Cyclops comments on how Kurt doesn’t look very glad to see him as Kurt bamfs out with Logan. He leaves him in the Med Lad with Moira and instructs her to help Logan into his exo-harness. Moira questions what is happening, Kurt returns to the fight after telling her that Cyclops is back with a bunch of others and that the X-Men reacted quickly but he still fears that they might be outmatched. Moira quickly runs over to help a struggling Logan.
A garage where the Butt Monkeys rehearse
T.J. has brought Kitty to band practice, they are the Butt Monkeys, their music style is neo-techno-thrash; fast, loud, and a good excuse to vent without any serious breakage, except eardrums. Kitty watches them rehearse with a confused look on her face. The band isn’t really good, never played one gig, but maybe with time… Kitty cringes. The name of the group had been decided by Sean the drummer, he’s a dork. Kitty cringes some more, shuts an eye with her mouth open, both eyes shut, another cringe.
Back at the mansion
Rogue tells Warlock that he’s got the stretching thing down but still looks a little brittle to her, she tears him in half and he falls to the ground clicking. Thunderbird punches Rogue calling her a monster and threatens to kill her if she killed Warlock. She blasts him with some flames from her Human Torch power and informs him that if she killed him then she did her job, “sugah.”
As Kurt attempts to reason with Scott, Hyve is crawling on the wall, Kurt tells Scott that he must stop this and that it doesn’t have to be this way. Cyclops tells Kurt that as long as he sides with murderers (Wolverine) then it will be this way. Kurt tells Scott that it’s not that simple and he knows it. Cyclops tells Kurt to watch his attitude since his swarming associate Hyve reacts primarily on instinct and he doesn’t tolerate aggressive postures very well. Just then, Hyve swarms Nightcrawler and the many ticklike insects begin to bite him, Nightcrawler bamfs in and out causing Hyve to burst into flames, “the vermin couldn’t tolerate the teleport.”
Outside of Powell‘s Pin Parlor
T.J. shows Kitty a Celtic knot tattoo she was thinking about getting behind either her shoulder of on the small of her back. Kitty comments on how Goth it would be. T.J. adds that she can’t get one though, her dad would kill her; even when he’s not around she lets him make all the decisions. Nocturne comments on how Kurt never even asked if she wanted to be an X-Man, she just is one. Kitty tells her that he just sounds like a dad to her then asks if being an X-Man is so bad. “I mean how many mutants are there in the world? And out of all of them, we get to do this. We get to do good. And make a difference. How cool is that?” T.J. squints in annoyance, fifteen years old, and Aunt Kate is still way smarter than her.
The mansion
As Logan tries to communicate with the team, he realizes that Cyclops came prepared and is jamming the TK chip. Moira mentions that Kurt won’t be able to handle Cyclops, Logan agrees and tells her that Kurt will try to reason with Cyke and that’ll get him killed.
Suddenly Armageddon crashes through the wall fighting with Radioactive Man. As Rogue and Cyclops enter the Room Logan and Moira are in she comments on how those boys sure make big holes. Cyclops tells Logan that he can not just block the TK chips but he can track them too. Thunderbird, now with half his clothes burned off from Rogue, is fighting with White Dwarf. Nightcrawler bamfs in front of Cyclops and tells him that this must stop now. As Scott evilly says he agrees, he is interrupted by Lucien greeting him.
Tangles Hair Salon
Kitty and T.J. are in a hair salon, Kitty isn’t sure if T.J.’s idea is a good one, T.J. replies that she can bet her boots it’s a good idea. T.J. sits in a salon chair with a lady working on her hair, Kitty reads a magazine, she tells T.J. that she isn’t wearing any boots. T.J. tells her that isn’t her point. Kitty begins to explain that if it was snowing then she would be wearing her boots, T.J. tries to interrupt, Kitty goes on to say that it isn’t snowing because it’s summer. T.J. tells her that’s enough with the boots, Kitty reminds her that she was the one who brought it up. T.J.’s hair is done, she asks Kitty for her opinion, Kitty looks on in shock, the shock turns into “Your did is so gonna freak.” T.J. smirks with her new head of braided hair, “Y’think?”
The mansion
Cyclops is shocked at Lucien’s appearance, he asks what the X-Men have done to him. The glass around Lucien’s room is shattered and he has stepped out. He tells Mister Scott that Miss Moira is taking care of him and it’s all fine. Hyve suddenly swarms to attack Lucien, Cyclops screams for Hyve to stop but it’s too late. Lucien, reaches out a glowing finger bone to Hyve and repeats no, with contact, Hyve shrivels and turns white then falls to the ground dead. Cyclops looks on in horror as Lucien comments to Mister Scott that he is fine.
Outside of the mansion
Sundown, smoke billows from the mansion, Nocturne tries to drive faster to get back to find out what is happening at home, Kitty has her face pressed against the window in worry. As Nocturne is hurrying, she almost runs over a student. Kiko yells for Charlie to watch out. Nocturne gets out of the car to ask the kids what happened. Kiko tells her that someone attacked the school. Bobby tells her that big fat guy came after them and knocked out Nate and Mandy and George, he starts to list more names then adds that they ran away. Charlie ask Nocturne what they are to do. She tells them to stop whining and that they are X-Men, or will be one day and it’s about time they started acting like them. She repeats what Kitty told her about being an X-Man, “There are thousands of mutants in the world, and out of all of them you get the chance to do this. You get to be a hero.” Nocturne turns and smiles proudly at Kitty, “and how cool is that?” T.J. begins to gather them up to go but Bobby interrupts to ask what happened to her hair.
Blob stands with a bunch of unconscious kids around him. He complains about how he always gets the boring job where he doesn’t get to hurt anyone, then adds that he knocked down a few kids, then all the rest make like chickens. Charlie, Kiko, and Bobby show up tells him not to count them out so fast. They blast him with their fire powers while Bobby throws ice balls at them. He smirks telling them that he already told them that he’s the immovable Blob. Nocturne leaps onto his shoulders from a overhanging tree branch and calls him easily distracted them comments on how he shouldn’t be bragging about being way too fat to budge. Blob comments on having another blue fuzzy one around then threatens her not to make with the purple smoke, “I swear ya stink!” Nocturne grabs his head and ask if the immovable shtick applies to the brain inside of his head. Blob squeals then falls to the ground unconscious just as Nocturne leaps off his back. The kids cheer her on.
Inside the mansion
Lucien’s bones lie on the floor charred, the poor boy is dead. Kurt is stunned over Scott’s actions, he ask Scott how could he have killed Lucien since he was innocent and never did anything wrong. Scott calls Lucien a walking time bomb that could wipe out the entire mutant population if not the entire human race. Cyclops comments on how it’s classic for the X-Men to leave their messes for other people to clean up, he adds that he didn’t kill Lucien but the X-Men did. Kurt roars at Cyclops calling him a heartless monster.
As White Dwarf knocks Thunderbird down, Armageddon makes fun of Radioactive Man’s name; Armageddon ask why he just doesn’t call himself “Touch-Me-and-I’ll-Give-You-Cancer-Man.” Armageddon lands a hard punch to Radioactive Man’s chest plate. Radioactive Man calls him an idiot and complains about him compromising his containment suit, then knocks over Armageddon. As he gets up, Armageddon thanks him for the tip and tears into the suit. Radioactive Man screams NO, then a huge explosion follows sending nearly everyone flying to the ground. As the explosion occurs, Cyclops tells Kurt that it’s over, then blast him, Kurt falls to the ground smoking. Moira tries to tells Scott to stop, Logan tells her to not bother, she continues, “I miss Charles too. We all do. But you think this does justice to his memory- -and his dream?” Scott has heard enough, he commands Rogue to grab Moira, not to kill her but do shut her up. Rogue grabs Moira and Moira protests.
Scott turns his attention to Logan who is barely standing with his exo-harness. He tells Logan that it’s well past time for the murderer to pay for his crimes. Logan begins to tell him that he is so full of it but Nocturne interrupts him and asks that he watch his language since the children are present. Nocturne greets Mr. Summers, Scotts asks why not Uncle Scott and feigns that his feelings are hurt. She comments that he stopped being her uncle and he knows when and why. She asks to get on with it, he complies and blasts the kids but they all manage to avoid getting hit. Kitty phases through White Dwarf and lets part of her shirt go solid inside of him, it knocks him out and Kitty comments on how Nocturne was right about her powers being able to knock out a guys as dense as White Dwarf.
Rogue shows up behind Kitty and knocks her out with her Thing hands, then adds that T.J. shoulda reminded her to stay all ghosty longer. From behind Rogue, Bobby yells that she looks kinda funny and that he doesn’t mean ha-ha funny, he hits her in the back of the skull with an ice bat. As T.J. tries to sneak up on Cyclops, he blasts away Charlie and Kiko. Scott turns his attention to T.J. and asks if her big plan was to sneak up on him. She politely tells him that that she doesn’t have to sneak and lunges to try to possess him but ends up crashing into him and falling down next to Armageddon. Scott comments on how she shouldn’t be stupid and that he came prepared with a personal disrupter field, he adds that she should limit her bad decisions to her hairstyle.
Turning back to Logan who hasn’t moved or done anything during the course of the fight, Scott calls him a murderer again and blast away Logan’s exo-harness, his last means of support. Nocturne is pretty much knocked out of her senses so she doesn’t get most of what Cyclops said but it doesn’t really matter because he is in rant mode. Scott is screaming about Professor dying then goes on to yell about Jean, he holds Logan up by his shirt. He blames him for her death though that is impossible since Logan wasn’t even there, if anyone is at fault, it would be Cyclops. Wolverine calls him on it, which Cyclops doesn’t take well, he begins foaming at the mouth screaming at Logan, there isn’t much time left.
Nocturne rubs at her head, still too woozy to move, she still has an idea. She calls to Armageddon who is mumbling incoherently next to her but he was too out of it and she only has seconds to act, so she does. Logan feels his hands moving, he finds his knuckles pressed up against Scott’s chest and he plunges his claws into him. Scott is surprised, but that doesn’t matter, he falls to the ground. Logan with a sullen expression tells Nocturne who had possessed Armageddon’s body that she can put him down now.
Later in T.J.’s room
T.J. explains to Nightcrawler how she didn’t have a choice when she possessed Armageddon, she couldn’t have reached Scott in time to save Logan, she had to use his TK to animate Logan’s arms. She asks how Armageddon is doing, Kurt tells her that he is unconscious but he’ll recover and the others are okay. He comments on her taking such a great risk, how if she had been off by an inch or two, she interrupts him. Kurt places a hand on her shoulder and apologizes, then adds that he just worries. They hug and he tells her that he is proud of her and that she did a good thing, she thanks him, then he asks if they can talk about the hair.
After the Timebroker, on a beach sometime ago
Blink and Nocturne were talking about T.J.’s past, she comments on how that time was one of the last times that she had like that before Timebroker decided to play hide-the-reality. She finally felt that her dad was proud of her and it made her happy. Clarice mentions that she thinks that T.J. made Nightcrawler happy the day she was born, “You’re a good person T.J.” Clarice adds that there is one thing that is strange about her, T.J. ask what that would be, Blink mentions that T.J.’s tail retracts which is “eyuch.” T.J. tells her to live with it.
