Sunspot and Chance are in trouble, standing in a back alley, about to be attacked by two thugs, armed with knives… Sunspot has run out of energy. He fears he is about to die that day. Weakly, he blames himself for not being able to save the Korean girl and apologizes.
The men intend to cut him open. Chance angrily shouts that if Roberto is going to just meekly wait for them to slit his throat, she better take her chances alone! She tries to run, now drawing the attention of the two men, who promptly begin beating on her. Roberto is horrified. Despite his lack of strength, he attacks them. They quickly overpower him, now ignoring Chance.
Suddenly, a garage door opens and a strikingly tall and thin teenager in 80ies club wear with sunglasses that hide her eyes asks from there if Chance is there. Chance recognizes her as Ariel. The girl advises Chance to quickly come in unless she likes seeing dead teenager movies without going to the movies. Chance stammers that they are attacking the boy because he defended her. So have the UN send him a medal, Ariel replies heartlessly, before reminding Chance that neither of them has any superpowers. She tells Chance to come. If those two guys come anywhere near this door, she’s closing it whether Chance is inside or not. Chance decides to abandon Roberto and jumps inside.
Perhaps dying will not be that bad, Roberto thinks, when the cavalry comes in the form of a hysterically screaming shapechanging Warlock. The bizarre alien frightens the men away and Warlock, panicked, tries to help Roberto, who reminds himself that crying would be unmanly, and yet…
He recalls how yesterday he almost killed his best friend Sam Guthrie. Cain, who slew Abel, cannot be more evil than him. He doesn’t deserve to be a New Mutant any longer. With that, he asks Warlock to leave him.
Does he no longer like him? Warlock worries. He has never been more dear to him, Roberto admits, but he is not fit to touch Warlock. He asks the alien to let him live his life as an outcast – a pariah. Warlock decides then they both shall be outcasts together.
Seeing the doorway, Bobby recalls that the girl he saved and her friend disappeared in there. He opens the door to the storage area but there is no trace of Chance and Ariel nor is this the brightly-lit room they ran into.
Back at Xavier’s School, Moira and her two young assistants have arrived and Magneto has appraised them of the situation regarding Sunspot and Warlock. Moira reminds Magneto that he wanted her there because there was some emotional trouble brewing amongst his students and he hoped that she as an expert on mutations might be able to help him deal with it. She asked Siryn and Jamie Madrox along because they’re mutants themselves and still in their teens, meaning they can better relate to the youngsters.
Magneto quickly summarizes how, during a game, Sunspot lashed out at his best friend Sam Guthrie and very nearly caused Sam’s death. Although he’d scarcely considered the matter before, Sam is perhaps the most popular among the New Mutants and, due to his bravado and arrogance, Roberto is the least. With the exception of Warlock, the other mutants acted judgmentally. Sunspot ran away and, Magneto presumes, Warlock followed to bring him back. Ordinarily, he believes that the others would have gone with Warlock, but they are still just children who are now trapped by the fright that Sam’s close call gave them. And by their own feelings of guilt and shame.
Jamie remarks that he’s sure Magneto and Moira will manage to help them, while he and Siryn will find the runaways for them. Magneto gives them a portable Cerebro unit able to detect mutants’ biorhythms in a limited radius. He also hands them a photo of Bobby.
Since Manhattan is the closest city to take a bus to that’s where they will begin, Terry decides. Looking like a couple of creatures from a science fiction film? Moira asks. With his cowl down and normal clothes, he’ll look like everyone else Jamie replies, and he bets there are lots of people with wilder outfits than Siryn’s. If anyone notices her, they’ll probably think she is a rockstar. Magneto wishes them good luck.
In the streets of Manhattan, Warlock, now wearing a trenchoat, asks if his disguise is acceptable. Bobby replies he looks like Sam Spade. He was one of the greatest fictitious detectives the world has ever known, almost as great as Thomas Magnum of Magnum P.I. Warlock admits he would be better at keeping up the disguise if he weren’t so hungry. Observe Senhor Spade, Bobby replies and points at a garbage can. Lots of organic matter for him to consume. Warlock does so while Roberto is reminded of his own hunger. And he has no money.
Warlock naively remarks that if friendbobby has embraced evil as lifepattern, then is purchase not tendered unnecessary as means of acquisition of goods and services? Bobby realizes he is right. Heroes like Magnum and the New Mutants may worry about right and wrong. Sunspot is a villain now and he takes what he needs.
He walks up the steps of the nearest building and uses his mutant power to tear out the door. He powers down the next moment as in front of him he sees a crucifix. He is within a church. Forgive me, he stammers.
The priest comes out of the refectory, asking what’s going on. He sees they are only children and becomes kinder. Are they in some kind of trouble? Can he help them? No one can! Roberto shouts and runs away in terror.
The priest tries to take care of the door, wondering what was the matter with those boys. That moment three street roughs walk in, intending to rob the church. Suddenly, a geeky-looking thin blond kid remarks that much as he hates to interfere in matters that are none of his business… his companions have pointed out to him that their intentions are clearly felonious and do not take into account the wishes of the person they assaulted. He asks them to desist and go about their business. Or Don, Bill and he will send them on their way by force. The thugs laugh.
The priest tries to get up hearing the laughter turn to sounds of surprise and pain. As he raises himself, he sees the thugs beaten on the ground.
Outside, the kid runs away discussing matters with someone on the ground. He remarks that he agrees with them that an act of altruism never required an apology… but they were instructed to find Sunspot and his strange friend and convince them to come with them. Thanks to that delay they may have lost them. He is making haste as he makes conversation, he suddenly stresses and demands the two of them do the same.
At the Port Authority Bus Terminal, Siryn and Madrox start their search. Terry wonders how they can find two boys in such a crowded place. That’s part of why he is there, Jamie stresses. She has no idea how handy a power like his comes in when you’re looking for a needle in a haystack as he used to say when he lived on the farm. Did he really say that? Terry asks doubtful. Well, he said it to himself after his parents died and he lived there alone, Jamie amends.
A woman, her hands full of grocery bags, bumps into him. As she looks at her dropped parcels, she isn’t aware that the bump caused Madrox to split into two. Startled she looks up, believing them to be twins. One of the two offers to carry her bags for her while the first Madrox tells him to meet them and… the rest of the family at the taxi stand.
Madrox slips into a quiet corner and asks Terry to stand guard. He intends to rustle up some reinforcements. As he bumps against the walls several times, he creates more and more dupes and, in the meantime, he regales Siryn with tales of his youth: after his parents found out what his mutant power was they were afraid to send him to school… so his father and Professor Xavier designed a teaching computer, so he could learn things at his own speed. He hated that machine, especially since it and the TV were his only companions after he was orphaned. He hated geography, he hated Spanish grammar, he hated history, subtraction… but for some reason he never had any trouble with… multiplication.
How’s he coming along? Siryn asks. Just fine thanks and you, Multiple Madroxes chorus back. Some day he’s going to give her or some other unsuspecting lassie a heart attack when he does that, she half—jokes as she passes out copies of the photo of Roberto to them. While they swarm out she stays with the original and advises the others not to have two of them leave the station too close together.
One gentleman wonders whether two of those boys don’t look rather alike. He doesn’t think so, a third Madrox informs him.
Outside the station, Siryn’s mini-Cerebro picks up plenty, due to several mutants within the city, but no Sunspot. She adds that she calibrated Cerebro so it won’t pick up any known heroes or any of the Madroxes.
Elsewhere, the strange boy is talking to his companions on the ground, telling them they are only a little ahead of them. Never say die. They should show some appreciation for the thrill of the chase. As they pass a restaurant he strictly tells them that stopping for lunch is out of the question. Their orders as regarding food before they found their quarry were after all most specific. Although he does see the merit in their point about feeding their inner being, so that spirit does not fail them. Suddenly he shouts at Don not to go in there. That’s a seafood restaurant. Now what have Bill and he told him about taking foolish chance?
While he kneels there, one Madrox passes him by, wondering how his other selves are doing. Suddenly, he sees two kids sitting on a doorstep. As they look the right age, he wonders if they have seen the runaways. He addresses them, wanting to show them the photo, that moment he sees it’s Bobby and a humanshaped Warlock.
Was friendmadrox fooled by his clever disguise? Warlock asks, while Bobby wants to know what he wants there. To find them and bring them home, Madrox replies impatiently. Doesn’t he know how worried everybody else is? Warlock is happy to hear that, whereas Bobby is hard pressed to believe him when, suddenly, more Madroxes and the geeky kid and his friends have found them as well.
The kid introduces himself as Gomi and asks Sunspot to listen to him first; he has a message for him. Forsake your destiny and come with us to Beat Street. The Fallen Angels want you. And watch your step, he adds. He almost stepped on Bill. Sunspot looks down to see two lobsters, one green, one blue, at his feet. The green one is Bill and Don is blue, Gomi adds. Warlock immediately wants to introduce himself to the lobsters, such elegant lifeforms. They’re just animals, a confused Roberto points out. Aren’t they all? Gomis asks before pointing out the way to Beat Street. What about his friends? Bring them, Gomi suggests.
One of the Madroxes interjects that neither of them is going anywhere. Wasn’t Bobby listening to him? Roberto points out if any of the New Mutants had truly cared, nothing could have kept them from coming after him in person.
He’s right, you know, comes another voice. That’s how teams are, let you down in a pinch when you need them the most. That’s all his teams ever did for him and the ones led by Magneto were the worst. Of course that was before he moved uptown and got too fine to talk to us working mutants who have to work for their living. It’s the Vanisher, dressed in stylish 80ies clothing.
Despite his estrangement from Magneto and the New Mutants, Roberto refuses to have any villain speak ill of them. He powers up and warns the Vanisher not to slander his friends. The Vanisher tells him to calm down. He didn’t mean any harm. It’s just he knows how it feels to be a misunderstood outcast. He wanted to let him know someone cares, that’s all.
Roberto reminds himself how harshly his friends judged him. He doesn’t want to make the same mistake. Does the Vanisher really care?
Elsewhere Siryn and the original Madrox follow their portable Cerebro and finally find the others. Recognizing the Vanisher, Theresa flies into action and immediately attacks. The Vanisher true to form… vanishes. Suddenly, a door opens. From within the doorway, Chance asks Sunspot why he doesn’t want to come to Beat Street? Doesn’t he have the courage to take a chance? Ariel sweettalks Bobby and he finally follows Gomi inside as does Warlock and the Madroxes standing around (apart from the one who came with Siryn).
Siryn lands as the doors slams in front of her. She open it, annoyed to find herself inside a swanky seafood restaurant with no sign of the others.
