Outside Nova Roma, hidden in the Brazilian rainforest, two Legionnaires find a giant animal footprint in the ground. They figure from the size of the footprint the creature must be at least ten meters in height. They intend to inform Senator Aquila of the breach. A voice behind them tells them she will save them the trouble and deliver it herself. The beastmaster watches as one her creatures kills one man, then orders the rest to go after the running man and eat him.
Krakoa, The Green Lagoon:
Magik is nursing a cocktail at the counter. She is joined by Trinary, who observes it is a little early in the day to be meeting in a bar. Magik schools her that all good clandestine operations start with secret meetings in a bar. She asks Anole for two more of the same, then orders Trinary to not keep her in suspense.
Trinary explains she did as Illyana asked and looked into that site, DOX. It looks like the comms section took over and became the site. Everybody who writes for that site is a troll. Illyana asks if she has found the caves where those trolls live. It took her about thirty seconds, Trinary retorts. She adds those people are responsible for a lot of hurt in their world. She hands Magik an USB drive with all the necessary intel. Trinary adds she could have done everything Magik plans to do from here. There is no reason for her to go through all that trouble. Illyana believes this is something best done face to face.
Soon, Magik exits the Krakoan Gate in Columbus, Ohio, followed by Mirage and Glob Herman. Pointing at a building, Magik states they have an office with a front row seat to one of their gates. Glob nervously asks if they should be doing this. They will have seen them arrive. Let them, Magik replies. Let them quake in their boots. Everything that happened in Pilger, Beak’s parents’ deaths, the attack on Glob and the others – was because of them. It’s time for a little payback!
Mirage reminds her of the Krakoan Law not to kill any human. She knows, Illyana replies. That doesn’t mean she can’t hurt them so badly they would be glad for death to end the pain…
An elderly man in a large office looks down and shouts they are coming up! He orders the receptionist to lock the door, then orders everyone to take out their phone and record everything. Remember, they are doing important work here and are not going to let the mutants bully them.
Magik kicks in the door. Start filming! he shouts Do it, Magik agrees. She threatens him with her sword. She’d love for the world to see this.
Dani grabs a laptop and announces they see him, Joseph Canning, owner and publisher of DOX online. She puts in a USB drive. They see how they are watching mutants. And she wants them to know exactly what they are doing.
The laptop shows an image of a young woman and her two kids: Annie Hayes, Mirage explains, 32. A mother of two young children. A mutant. Killed by a lunatic who tracked her using their website.
The next image: Devon Coyle, 27. Shot multiple times on his way to a Gate in Los Angeles.
Kristin Elgisdottir of Iceland, 14. Beaten by her schoolmates after being outed by their site. She’s in a vegetative state, likely never to recover.
Nash Solly, a father of four in Australia. Beaten in his home in front of his kids. He survived but he will never walk again. All those people suffered because of readers of their site.
Canning shakes his head. No way they are pinning this on them. The moment mutants moved to create their own nation and developed new medicines which they then held hostage until the world accepted them… this new world where they can dictate policy… using human lives as bargaining chips. Mutants drew the battle lines. They set the stage, they escalated the war. And they expect humans not to report that? Or is this how they plan to usher in their new world order? By blaming the actions of a few lunatics on them. They only report. They don’t tell people to go out there and commit murder.
They certainly don’t dissuade them from it either, Illyana snaps. When they post names, addresses, photos, they don’t get to feign innocence. DOX may not be the gun but they provide the bullets!
Mirage adds they are not going to shut them down but will make sure they report responsibly. She’s just altered his system: now, every time they dox a mutant, his full name and address will appear with the article.
The three mutants turn to leave. Canning shouts after them, they shouldn’t believe they have won any kind of victory here. DOX have the footage of them threatening their freedom of speech and their lives. He vows to crucify them. Was that a threat? Magik snarls. She gets ready to attack. Glob steps between them ordering enough. He then hits Canning himself, while ranting he had to deal with people like him all his live, even when he was trying to stay out of their way. They went out of their way to find him and make his life a living hell!
Dani looks on in shock while Magik grins she never thought they would have to reel in Glob.
Canning shouts at his people to get that monster away from him. Glob grabs him and vows if even one more mutant is killed because of his site, he will kill him. Even if he has to spend the rest of his life in a dark hole, it will have been worth it.
Magik tells him he made his point and suggests they go home. She tells Canning to consider this a warning. There will not be another.
Brazil:
In the streets of Nova Roma, dead bodies lie strewn in the streets thanks to the creatures of the mysterious beast mistress. An injured Senator Aquila demands why she killed therm. The blonde woman replies, his people drew first blood. So, she had to retaliate. She begins treating his wounds as she states there were others. She saw them leaving in an aircraft She needs him to survive to deliver her message. She needs to know who the people in the aircraft were. Aquila refuses to tell her and would rather die.
That doesn’t surprise her. She announces that he has forced her hand, as she opens a black bag and takes out a green slimy creature. Beautiful, the woman coos as she releases the creature onto Aquila, and it burrows itself through his skin. She explains it devours organs and releases a secretion that heals them. She will keep him alive and in a great deal of pain as she grows within him. Aquila groans in agony and begs her to make it stop. Once he has done as she has asked, only then will she remove her. So in the interest of his survival, bring him the monster that killed her babies!
Krakoa, outside the Sextant:
Glob is feeding his chicken. Illyana joins him. He tells her he wants to be alone but she insists
they talk about what happened in the DOX offices. He reveals his dad was like those people. Full of hate. Glob grew up hating mutants because his dad hated them. His friends hated them. It was all they talked about. It consumed their lives. When mutants came withing driving distance of them, his father dragged Glob out to protest against them. He has never told anyone about his family. So she can imagine how happy his father was when he mutated.
He wipes away his tears as he describes how he was now the one who suffered his father’s rage. One night, his mother snuck him out of the house and drove him to Westchester, to Xavier’s school. She kissed his forehead and told him not to call home.
At first, he hated it at school. He was stuck with mutants. He had been raised to hate mutants. Then he realized this is where he belonged, but he was still mad. Mad at humans because of everything they had done to mutants… because of everything his dad had done to him. So he lashed out and latched on to other angry kids who were feeling the same and they fed off each other. And then one day he realized what he was doing and that he was just like his dad. He had a moment of clarity and realized this wouldn’t end well. He was letting the anger eat away at him and it wasn’t healthy. He needed to be better.
And he’s been trying so hard. He’s been happy on Krakoa. They shouldn’t be afraid anymore. So, when he was face to face with those jerks, they reminded him of his father. He broke. He let his anger take over again. He hated how it made him feel.
Illyana tells him a little anger is good for the soul. It shows how deeply he cares. As long as he doesn’t let it consume him, there is no reason not to let it out once in a while.
She hugs him and tells him they did a good thing today. They saved some lives.
