Sitting on the shore of Utopia, Idie Okonkwo aka Oya holds up her fingers trying to measure the distance of the hulking Super-Sentinel that is walking towards the island. Maybe she could do something with the sea, she tells her teammate, Gabriel Cohuelo aka Velocidad. Subtract all the temperature from the water. Freeze it. That’ll keep the Sentinel locked still, then hit it with all the heat! She could do that? he marvels. Idie agrees, but isn’t sure she’d survive. But it would certainly solve the problem. Gabriel doesn’t like the idea. It’s okay, he tells her, trust Gabriel. Nothing to worry about. If there was something to worry about, would he be speaking about himself in the third person? Gabriel thinks not! And besides – it’s at least twenty minutes away.
The rest of the team sees thing differently, at least Laurie Tromette aka Transonic does. She tells Hope the real X-Men won’t make it back to Utopia in time. It’s just the students and Cyclops. Thirty minutes ago that thing was a suitcase, she refers to the Sentinel. Now it’s that! She insists they evacuate. They are children, not soldiers! Laurie stresses. She wants to begin the evacuation plan.
Hope points out that Laurie is eighteen. She’s old enough to be a soldier. If she wants to be. She holds out a gun to Laurie. Angrily, Laurie reminds her that Idie is only fourteen. And think what she’s already done! Forget how he looks. Gabriel’s sixteen! She takes the gun, explaining she is not a pacifist. She believes some things are worth fighting for. But this? It’s a stupid rock in the ocean! It’s not worth it! She hands the gun back.
Kenji Uedo aka Zero points out that while it is a stupid rock, alas, it is their stupid rock. Didn’t anything in the museum sink in? Those dark futures are based around people just accepting it. Thinking it won’t get worse. Thinking about surviving without thinking where that eventually leaves them. The world’s watching. They run, and it says: “hey—you can build machines to hunt and kill mutants.” In other words: “Build machines to hunt and kill mutants - it works!” And they’re one step closer to X-genocide. They stand and fight? They show them what’s theirs is theirs. And get to punch a death camp on legs in the face!
Since when has he been so political? Laurie asks. Since he saw a kid commit suicide because the world had made him so scared of what he was becoming! He looks to the Sentinel. This is a hellish world. But running will only make it worse.
Laurie tells him they can all stay, but this isn’t a decision Idie gets to make. She helps Idie up. When Laurie ran last time, she left her behind. She’s not doing that again. She begins to drag Idie away. Hope orders her to stay. Laurie turns around as if slapped. “You total bitch!” she states, fists clenched. Hope knows she can’t say “no” and is doing it anyway.
Hope just tells her, it doesn’t end here. They don’t end here. It can’t end here. She turns to Idie, telling her to make up her own mind. What does she really think? She puts her hand on Idie’s shoulder and the young girl announces they should stay together. They’re family, right? Hope hugs her and thanks her. They fight, she tells Laurie. And unless she wants to leave Idie, she fights with them.
Laurie reminds Hope that she’s only like this when she is around her. The next moment, she decks Hope, who looks at her in shock. The only surprise, Laurie adds, is that Hope is surprised that people want to do this to her.
She kicks Hope, who grabs her leg and drops Laurie. The next moment, she is on her, warning Laurie to stop. She is no fighter. Laurie flies with Hoe atop her and lands both of them hard, laying another blow on Hope. She informs her she is what Hope made her.
Gabriel wants to intervene but Primal holds him back. Hope catches Laurie’s fist and hits back. Teon still tries to keep Gabriel from joining the battle, but he tries to break up the fight with superspeed. Teon joins the fight as well.
Suddenly, Idie shouts at them to stop it. In a quieter voice, she continues that, when they came for her, her parents resisted. When they turn on a witch child, that doesn’t always happen. No matter how bad the world gets, she tells them, it’s always worse, when we fight themselves. The others look ashamed. She’s in for this, Laurie agrees. But it doesn’t end here.
In the meantime, some of the New X-Men – Prodigy, Dust, Anole and Rockslide – have come out. They were wondering which way the new kids are leaning, Prodigy remarks. The debating process looks kind of similar. What are they doing next? Hope announces they are going to tell Cyclops he has himself some X-Men. Kenji agrees, repeating his argument: it’s stupid rock, but it’s our rock. Sounds familiar, Anole agrees, including the “stupid rock” thing.
Rockslide recalls he said “what’s wrong with stupid rocks” and Dust points out everyone thought it was terribly inappropriate timing.
Prodigy muses that he wondered why they haven’t mingled much. When it’s clear they are not too different. Hope asks if everyone is going to fight. If it comes to it, Prodigy agrees, then amends, he thinks so. Hellion is pretty angry with the situation, but Hellion is angry about everything.
He’s got a good reason, Pixie who has joined them points out. Because Hellion knows the cost. Normally, she could save the day with a little magical teleportation. Bring the X-Men back here in a blink. But… she holds up her bandaged hands. Without painkillers, it hurts too much to concentrate. With them, she is all muddled. And she can’t do the finger wiggles anymore. Hellion’s down on this because he knows the cost. Pixie was out with the team and, if one of the old Sentinels had been a little closer to her, she’d be paying what he did. She’d be the amazing no-hands girl. And that thing? She points towards the Sentinel. It’s going to be messy. This is going to kill some of them.
Is she going to run? Hope asks. Hell, no, she’s going to fight, Pixie replies with a smile. She’s an X-Man. But everyone needs to remember what that means. Silently, the youngsters look at the Sentinel. Hope announces she’s going to tell Cyclops.
Gabriel tells Pixie that was cool. And what’s that accent? Welsh. She’s from Wales. Gabriel tells her he’s sorry her princess died. He doesn’t know much about Wales, does he? she smiles. And she was like two or whatever.
Laurie reminds Hope that, after this, no matter what, Idie’s out of here. She won’t let Hope make that girl more collateral damage of her lunatic cause. They can talk about that then, Hope brushes her off and walks away.
Kenji tells the angry Laurie to leave it for tomorrow, assuming they are graced with one. He agrees with her but today is not the time. Tomorrow? If it comes to it, he can kill Hope in her sleep. They can be villains then… but today they are going to have to be heroes! And right now, he’ll be surprised if anyone can tell the difference.
Together they wait for the hulking menace.
