London, six months ago, inside the flat of Adrienne Frost. The glamorous brunette is half-dressed, and turns to the man in her bed, telling him not to take this the wrong way. ‘You’re a sweetie, but I have to do this’. Adrienne adds that to be frank, she has been getting quite bored. Adrienne grins as she puts a vial of something inside her bag and remarks that London has been fun. ‘Playing “White Queen” has had its moments’ she adds. ‘You were lots of fun’ she tells the man in her bed, grinning wickedly. ‘I think you know that’ she tells him as she adjusts her skirt and puts on her white coat. Looking in a mirror, Adrienne exclaims that she feels it is time she went back to the States, as she has a bit of unfinished business there, concerning her sister, Emma.
‘You know about my sister, right? I think I told you about her’ Adrienne remarks that she came pretty close to killing Emma’s little brood of mutant rugrats the last time she saw her. ‘And well, once I start a task I like to see it through’. Adrienne reclines on the bed, exclaiming that she cannot wait to see the look on Emma’s face when she sees her again. ‘Absolutely priceless, I’m sure!’ she grins, before telling her lover that he is being awfully quiet. ‘Aww, why the long face?’ she asks him. ‘Are you going to miss me, sweetie?’ Adrienne asks him, grinning as she tells him that he is perfectly adorable.
‘But you didn’t possibly think anything serious would come of this, did you?’ Adrienne asks, before getting up and putting some lipstick on, when her cell phone rings. ‘Yes? Yes, thank you, I’ll be right down’ she tells the caller, before turning to her still-silent lover, ‘Well, this is it, then. My car is here’ she announces, before kissing her lover, telling him that he has been great. ‘Bye-bye, sweetie!’ Adrienne grins as she leaves the flat, and leaves her lover in a vegetative state, eyes rolled back, drool spilling from his mouth.
Meanwhile, Snow Valley, Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Academy, where several young mutants attend school with a large number of human students. One of those gifted youngsters, Everett Thomas a.k.a. Synch, waits outside the bathroom, ready to have a shower, when suddenly, Monet St. Croix opens the bathroom door and bumps into him. ‘Oh! I’m sorry!’ she exclaims as Everett drops his toothbrush and other things. They both drop to the floor to pick the items up, as Synch tells Monet, hair wrapped up in a towel, that it is his fault. ‘Shouldn’t have been standing so close to the door anyway’ Synch remarks, but Monet tells him ‘That’s okay’. Synch smiles as he thanks Monet for helping him with his stuff. ‘Not at all, Everett. It’s my pleasure’ Monet replies as she hands Everett his razor.
Monet and Everett move together, when suddenly they are interrupted, ‘Move it! Gotta pee!’ shouts Jubilation Lee - better known simply as “Jubilee” - as she thunders down the hallway. Realizing she has interrupted something, Jubilee asks Monet and Synch what’s going on. Synch gets to his feet and replies ‘Oh, nothing. Um, I better get going…’. Monet greets Jubilee and asks her how she is. ‘Oh, whatever, M. What’s wrong with Ev?’ Jubilee replies. Monet strides down the hall, calling back ‘Why, now that you mention it, absolutely nothing at all’.
Later, in the Academy cafeteria, Jubilee is sitting with the rest of her Generation X teammates - Paige “Husk” Guthrie, Jonothan “Chamber” Starsmore and Angelo “Skin” Espinosa, while the various human students mill about in the cafeteria line, or sitting at other tables. ‘I can’t even tell if it’s animal or vegetable!’ Jubilee complains, looking at her lunch. Husk tells Jono that it is times like this that she envies him, to which the telepathic Chamber replies that the food smells horrible, and almost makes him miss not eating. Looking closely at the lumpy brown mash in front of her, Jubilee exclaims that she heard it was chicken, but that she wouldn’t bet on it. ‘What’s up with this school? It would be nice to at least have an idea of what we are eating here!’ she exclaims, turning to Angelo and asking him if he is with her on this.
‘Whassat?’ Skin asks, shovelling more of the dodgy food into his mouth. ‘Oh, ewww! Get it away from me!’ Jubilee exclaims, knocking her tray over as Chamber tries to feed her some of the food. Suddenly, Paige grabs everyone’s attention: ‘Hey guys, look!’ she exclaims, motioning over to another table, where three bullies are harassing a student with an odd haircut and lots of ear-piercing. ‘Hey man. What’s up?’ one of them asks him, but he gets no response. ‘Hey, freak, he’s talking to you. Gonna answer him or what?’ another of the bullies exclaims. ‘Dude, I think he’s ignoring you’ the second bully tells the first.
‘Are we bothering you, freak? You haven’t touched your food’ the first bullet exclaims, taking a handful of the brown slop, he offers to help him. The second bully grabs the odd student in a headlock, ‘Hey, let go!’ the student cries out. ‘You need to bulk up, man. You look like a scarecrow!’ the first bully exclaims as he brings the so-called food towards him, until, suddenly, ‘Lay off, man!’ Skin exclaims, grabbing the first bully’s arm, holding him back. ‘What do you care, hombre? Are you his boyfriend or something?’ the first bully asks, causing the others to snigger.
Skin lets the bully go, causing the bully to drop the food to the ground. ‘Look, he didn’t do anything to you. Just leave him alone, okay?’ Skin asks, before beginning to walk away. ‘Hey, don’t walk away from us! We wanna know why you’re standing up for freak boy here!’ the second bully exclaims, while the first asks ‘And what’s with your skin? You’re like, gray, man. Between you and freak boy and your other loser boyfriend with the thing over his face, it’s like a carnival around here!’ he exclaims. ‘Look, I’m not gonna fight you guys -’ Skin begins, until the first bully shoves him, and accidentally pulls back some of Angelo’s skin. The bully goes wide-eyed, and tells his friends that they need to go. ‘Next time, man’ the second bully warns Angelo as he walks past him.
Paige and Jubilee rush over to Angelo, asking him if he is okay, to which he replies he is, while the odd student approaches and thanks Skin. ‘Those guys are just insecure meatheads. Don’t let ‘em get to ya’ Skin tells him. ‘Yeah. Easier said than done though’ the student replies, before taking his leave. Paige asks Angelo what is wrong, to which Skin replies that he thinks he should talk to Emma and Sean.
The next day, in the office of Emma “White Queen” Frost, co-headmistress of the Academy. Emma sits at her desk, while Sean “Banshee” Cassidy, the co-headmaster stands alongside her, and Husk, Jubilee, Skin and Chamber gather before them. Emma announces that she has just been talking on the phone to the parents of the boy that pushed Angelo, and that apparently, he called home yesterday, babbling about “freaks” and “mutants” running loose in the school. ‘His mother was livid’ Emma remarks, before explaining that she was able to pass of Angelo’s skin condition as a rare medical problem, but she suspects the mother didn’t fully accept that.
‘But -’ Skin begins to say, before Sean interrupts, telling Angelo that they appreciate and note the fact that he came to them straight away and explained what happened, but that he clearly should not have put himself in a position where that even could have occurred. ‘In other words, lad…ye botched up!’ Banshee declares. Husk comes to Angelo’s defense, explaining that she was there, and thinks they are being too harsh on Skin. ‘He was just trying to help’. Emma tells Paige to stop for a minute and consider the position that she and Sean are in. ‘One of the students, accidentally or not, discovered Angelo is a mutant. I run a school populated by hundreds of sons and daughters of very wealthy and influential people. I cannot even explain to you how bad it would be for all of us if this got out’.
‘Geez, you act like I am some sort of subhuman freak, or something’ Skin snaps. ‘Could easily be me they go after next, mate’ Jono remarks, before Emma declares ‘Angelo, darling, you are a mutant. In the minds of the public, you are a freak. You all have to be a lot more careful around the other students’ she declares. This causes Jubilee to angrily sit up and shout ‘You two are horrible! Angelo was just being a good guy, and here you are blaming it all on him. Those jocks are the ones you should be punishing!’ she tells them.
‘Jubilee, for the love of God, now isn’t the time for another of your outbursts’ Banshee tells her. ‘But you’re both wrong! Why can’t you see that? You’re treating us like babies!’ Jubilee exclaims, to which the White Queen suggests that maybe Jubilee shouldn’t act like a baby. ‘It’s times like this I wonder why you can’t be more like Everett’ she exclaims, shocking Jubilee. ‘Oh, wow…’ Paige whispers.
Soon, Jubilee marches from Emma’s office over to her dorm room, the door labeled with her name cut out of magazines, and No pretty boys. No pests. You still here?stuck on the door. ‘Hey, Jubilee’ Synch calls out as he stands outside Jubilee’s door. Jubilee ignores him as she unlocks her door, while Everett exclaims that he was hoping they could talk, as he wants to ask her something important. ‘Um, do you have a minute?’ he asks. Jubilee still ignores him and enters her room. Synch grabs the door and holds it open as Jubilee stands half in the door way.
‘Jubilee, it’s really important, especially after what happened yesterday morning in the hall’ Synch tells her. ‘With Monet. Please, Jubilee’ Everett exclaims, but Jubilee tells him to let go of the door. He doesn’t, so she shouts ‘Are you deaf, Everett? You are the last person in the world I want to see right now! Leave me alone!’ she shouts, before slamming the door in his face. Everett stands outside Jubilee’s room for a moment, dejected, before walking away.
Later, Monet and Everett walk hand-in-hand across the Academy grounds, wearing warm coats, they trudge through the snow, silent, until Monet asks Everett if he missed her while she was away. ‘Yeah, of course, M, but -’ Everett replies, to which Monet interrupts, telling Synch that the entire flight back from the horrible school in Switzerland, she kept thinking about one thing over and over again. ‘I missed the Academy, and Sean and Emma, and every one else, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how I just wanted to see you again’ Monet reveals. ‘It’s not easy for me to talk about this, you know’ Monet points out, before Synch puts his hand to her face, and moves her towards him, then they embrace, and kiss.
‘Mutants in love’ Adrienne grins as she watches Monet and Everett through binoculars from a car, sitting nearby. ‘How perfectly adorable’ Adrienne remarks, before asking her driver what his men say. The driver, who has an earpiece to communicate with his men, replies that security is tight, but nothing they couldn’t bypass. ‘Assuming this mission is a go’ he points out. Adrienne smiles, ‘Emma, dear sister, I will make sure you curse the day you ever tried messing with me!’ she exclaims, before telling her driver, Mister Ravenwood, that he may commence the operation. Adrienne gazes into a lit-up room, presumably where Emma is, while mister Ravenwood replies ‘Yes, Miss Frost, it will be done’. He adds that when people are already scared, manipulating them further is a simple matter. ‘I’m counting on it’ Adrienne replies as they drive away….
