‘Okay. Here we are. Are well…sure we’re sure about this?’ Danielle Moonstar a.k.a. Mirage asks as she and her companions stand in a street and look up at something. ‘Yeah’ Nate Grey a.k.a. X-Man remarks ‘Yes’ Amara “Magma” Aquila declares. ‘Si’ Sunspot a.k.a. Bobby DaCosta agrees. ‘Yes’ Doug “Cypher” Ramsey announces. Hidden beneath baggy sweat clothes and a large hood, Warlock smiles and concurs with his self / friends. Mirage smiles as she holds up a set of keys. ‘Alright. We’re doing it’ she announces.
Two days earlier…
Utopia, ‘I had a dream. I was home. Utopia. And I was walking around, looking for -’ Xi’an Coy Mahn a.k.a. Karma and sometimes called “Shan” remarks. ‘Where were you looking for?’ a voice asks her. Karma explains that it is not important. ‘Face, anybody, really’ she adds, before explaining that there was no one here, that everyone had gone. ‘Do you think your dream was about what’s happening at the moment?’ the voice calls out. ‘The exodus to Westchester, I mean’ the voice adds. Karma replies ‘Maybe. Probably’, but explains that is not important either, and adds that it was weird that Utopia was so empty. ‘But that’s not - the reason I mention it at all is that there was this feeling…this feeling that it was a memory. It was now. I mean, it was the present. But it felt like a memory from years ago’.
Inside the counseling room on Utopia, Karma sits across from Gus Grim. The now grown “Inferno Baby” called Face sits at Karma’s side. ‘What is your earliest memory, Mr Grim?’ Karma enquires. Gus goes wide-eyed, he is surprised at the question, before replying ‘Uh, well, I guess…a clothespin doll. I was three, or four. My aunt made it for me. I don’t know why I remember that’. Karma asks Gus if that memory seems fresh to him, to which Gus confirms that it does. ‘But also ancient?’ Karma asks. ‘I’m not that old -’ Gus begins. ‘You know what I mean’ Karma tells him. Gus reveals that he remembers it like it was a minute ago, but that he feels the distance of years. Karma tells Gus that is what her dream felt like - an old memory, like she was looking back at now. ‘But I was much older. And sadder’ she explains.
Gus Grim asks Karma if she thinks she will move to Westchester, to which Karma replies that she thinks the school is the best place for Face to be, and that she needs to be with him. ‘So that’s yes?’ Gus enquires. ‘Yes’ Karma tells him. Gus asks Karma about her teammates - about Dani and Douglas and Amara and the others. ‘What if they choose to stay here?’ he enquires. ‘Maybe - maybe that’s why, in the future, I become sad’ Karma states. Gus asks Karma if she thinks they will go to Westchester, or if they will stay, to which Karma states that she doesn’t know.
Outside, Amara sits on a fallen pillar at the beach surrounding the island, while Bobby kicks a football against the rubble. ‘What do you think? Go or stay?’ Magma asks. ‘I think there used to be room to play a little soccer here’ Sunspot replies, before pointing out that since the Sentinel attack, there is barely enough space for keepy-uppy. ‘There’s space in Westchester’ Amara points out. Sunspot muses that he could get himself a place in the city - living large. ‘I could afford that’ he adds. ‘I know’ Amara mutters. ‘I am independently wealthy. I have independent wealth’ Bobby states. ‘I know’ Amara mutters once more. Bouncing the football on his knee, Bobby tells Amara that she could come live there with him. ‘That’s never gonna happen, Bobby’ Amara replies, running a hand through her hair. ‘Okay. Just saying’ Bobby mutters as he kicks the ball hard, and starts to walk away. ‘Where are you going?’ Magma asks him. ‘To get my ball back’ Bobby tells her.
In the refectory, Warlock and Cypher sit opposite each other at a table. ‘Query, self / friend’ Warlock states. ‘Just thinking’ Doug replies. ‘Request output’ Warlock asks. ‘Oh you know, it’s so…’ Doug begins, before speaking in binary. Warlock smiles and responds in the binary language also. They continue to speak like this for some time. ‘Well, if you must put it like that, I suppose’ Doug remarks in English. Warlock speaks in the binary code some more, and Doug smiles: ‘Which I believe is precisely what I was saying’ Doug adds.
Meantime, in the counseling room, ‘Something odd happened to me a few days ago. I didn’t know where I was’ Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie remarks. ‘When, Sam?’ Gus inquires, while Sam recalls walking through empty rooms. Sam explains that he knew he was on Utopia, but couldn’t remember when. He adds that he felt like he missed something important, like he had forgotten someone’s birthday - but worse than that. Sam explains that the next thing he knew, he was sitting in Cyclops’s office, staring at the calendar. ‘I’m not well. I’m not right’ Sam declares as he leans back on a sofa. ‘That form of blackout -?’ he begins. Gus tells him that it could be many things. ‘Look, Mr Grim…I wanted to say thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I won’t be here next time you visit’ Sam announces, declaring that he thinks Westchester is the best place for him.
Meantime, in the Danger Room, X-Man and Hope Summers are battling side by side against a large tentacled robot. ‘So, you thinking about going?’ Hope asks. X-Man replies that he has only just got here and called this place home, and points out that Cyclops is his father. “But?” Hope asks. ‘No but’ Nate replies. ‘Come on. He’s your father like he’s my grandfather, which makes you my - the family dynamic is too insane to even think about’ Hope decides as she punches back one of the tentacles. Nate reveals that he wants to get to know Cyclops. ‘I want to get to know who he is’ Nate adds, before dodging one of the tentacles, announcing that he doesn’t really understand the split between Cyclops and Wolverine.
‘I mean, I get what it’s about. But where I come from, there was no such thing as childhood. I mean at all. I’ve no reason to go to Westchester. Cyclops is right’ Nate explains, declaring that there is no point shielding kids from life. ‘That said, I’m kind of used to being…me. I want to know Cyclops better, but it feels like a retrograde step to move back home’ Nate adds as he punches one of the tentacles. Hope kicks one of the attacking tentacles and replies that it doesn’t bother her, before asking Nate why he wants to know Cyclops better. ‘However insane it is, he’s my father’ Nate replies. ‘And I’m your…whatever I am’ Hope remarks. ‘Dammit!’ Nate exclaims as several tentacles move towards him.
Hope lunges at Nate and pushes him to safety, before calling out to Danger, ordering the session to be shut down. ‘I got careless. I cannot get used to my telekinesis not being there’ Nate explains, to which Hope assures him that it will come back. ‘You’re not my whatever I am, by the way. You’re my hope’ Nate tells the young woman. ‘God, that’s corny’ Hope laughs. ‘Tell me you’re not that corny when you try to pick up girls’. Trying to summon his telekinesis again, Nate replies that these days, he cannot pick up much of anything.
Suddenly, ‘Hey, Summers - think fast!’ Mirage shouts as she raises her bow and fires an arrow at X-Man, who dodges just in time. ‘&*&%$!’ Nate shouts. ‘You could’ve -’ he remarks, staring at the arrow stuck into the wall. ‘Yeah, I could, because funnily enough I know how to aim this thing. I wanted to force a response. You managed a little telekinetic push there, Nate’ Dani tells Nate as she walks over to him, explaining that the arrow is about eight inches of where she would have expected it to be. ‘In me, you mean?’ Nate asks. Hope announces that she thinks Nate is getting stronger, before Mirage tells Nate that there is something she wants to talk to him about - the whole team, actually.
Shortly, ‘This sounds ominous’ Magma remarks as she, Bobby and Cypher sit in front of Mirage, while Nate and Warlock - his regular yellow form replaced by a black form - stand on either side of the others. Mirage assures Magma that this is not ominous, before pointing out that that they have all seen what has been happening. ‘What I want to say is - what I want to say is, if any of you want or need to go to Westchester with Logan, that’s fine’. She adds that if they want to talk it through with her, they can, or with Gus Grim, who is visiting Utopia today. ‘Westchester / Utopia? Is binary choice only choice?’ Warlock asks. ‘That’s a good question’ Doug remarks. Mirage reveals that she has been thinking about that. ‘Let me ask you something…’ she begins.
Later, ‘So?’ Mirage asks. ‘So…’ Gus replies as they stand on the edge of Utopia. ‘As I understand it, Cyclops and this Wolverine guy got into it. Over what the X-Men should be’ Gus remarks. ‘It was ugly. Don’t ask’ Mirage tells him. ‘Okay. But now Wolverine is moving to this school in Westchester, and half the X-Men are going with him?’ Gus enquires. Mirage replies that it is split them down the middle. Gus asks Mirage if she has spoken to Karma and Cannonball, to which Mirage replies that she has, and that she knows what they need. ‘I’m okay with the choices they’ve made’ she announces.
‘Are you going?’ Gus asks. Dani reveals that her loyalties lie with Cyclops, as he believed in her and gave her a job to do. The other day, she heard Colossus refer to her team as the New Mutants. ‘He didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just, we’re the generation that came after his. He still thinks of us as kids. As the new ones’ Dani tells Gus, adding that it made her think, and explains that her team is an odd fit, as they are not all mutants. ‘I don’t have abilities so I might as well be plain human. Warlock is an extra-terrestrial. I - my point is…Logan wants to defend the children. Cyclops wants to defend the species. Both of those views require a certain separation from the real world. The actual world’ Dani declares.
Mirage announces that she believes in the struggle for mutant rights, but that she also believes that part of that fight is interfacing with that world so you can change it. ‘You can’t just sequester yourself from the outside world until it’s the way you want it to be. You have to go out there and be part of it’ she declares, before asking Gus what he thinks. Gus smiles and replies that he thinks Danielle has already made a decision. ‘I think you’re just rehearsing how to say it’ he tells her.
Soon, Cyclops is sitting at his desk, tapping away at his computer keyboard, when Mirage enters the office. ‘What do you need?’ he asks her. ‘Just to speak to you for a moment’ Danielle replies. What Mirage speaks to Cyclops about cannot be heard as she makes a lot of movements with her arms, and Cyclops does a lot of frowning - before they hug.
Now…
Danielle and her teammates smile - or in some cases frown - as they stare up at something. ‘All right. We’re doing it’ Mirage remarks as she holds up a set of keys. They stand outside 1128 Mission Street, in San Francisco, California, a large-enough, three-storied red house. A moving truck is parked out front, and boxes have already been unloaded onto the street. ‘Welcome to our new home’ Mirage remarks. The others go over and start bringing the boxes into their home, while Mirage’s mobile phone rings. ‘Scott?’ she asks as she answers. ‘You’re in the middle of a move. You must be busy’ Cyclops remarks from his office, his eyes not moving from his computer screen. Mirage smiles and explains that they are only unpacking, nothing that cannot wait. ‘What do you need?’ she asks. Cyclops replies that he has another loose end that needs to be tied up, someone he wants her to look for. And on the computer screen is an image of…Blink!
