It’s the worst day in the X-Men’s life, as they see one of their own – Beast aka Hank McCoy – slain at the hands of robot Sentinels on the steps of the Capitol. Beast’s girlfriend, Storm, first can’t believe her eyes, as she cradles her lover’s corpse. She looks to Xavier, who tells that he’s gone. With a shout of denial, Storm goes ballistic. She flies up into the air, warping weather patterns and wildly throwing lightning at one of the giant robots.
The other X-Men watch in awe, as she strikes again and again. She’s going to drop it, Jean realizes and telekinetically pushes the crowd out of the danger zone. Just in time, as the robot falls. Undeterred, Storm still attacks furiously. Xavier finally telepathically commands her to stop and to fall asleep. Iceman catches her, while Cyclops fights the other Sentinel.
Kitty asks Nightcrawler to teleport her up to the Sentinel’s head. When she phases through machinery, she messes it up. Maybe she can end this. Kurt complies and ‘ports them above the Sentinels’ head. Kitty phases inside. Not really knowing what she’s doing, she just phases through as much circuitry as possible. The robot finally drops, with Colossus managing to hold off its weight long enough for one child, who’s still standing there, to escape.
With the danger over, Xavier telepathically addresses Emma Frost, telling her that that’s why they have to do more than just teach. The humans aren’t ready for them yet..
Secret Service agents run to Frost’s side and she hysterically shouts get away from me, human! Looking at Beast’s corpse, she just repeats the word “no,” while one of her group of mutants, SHIELD Agent Karma, contacts Nick Fury.
Fury, Dugan, as well as other SHIELD agents arrive and Fury orders the Black Widow to debrief Karma. Dugan asks if Xavier and his kids just disappeared. Not yet. Fury explains that he just wants them to think they are gone. They’ll leave quietly. They should let them. Dugan states that they took the blue guy. Frost’s gone too. Let them bury their soldier, Fury replies. Back to business, he asks his agents about the president’s situation. They have him online, another agent replies. Fury talks to President Bush, making sure he’s all right and then stating that he will take care of this. But he needs the president’s executive permission to pursue this matter to its conclusion. Only three people in the world had access to the Sentinel program and one of them is dead. Clearly, those people want to be caught. He assures the president that this will be over in an hour.
Elsewhere in the White House, two of the conspirators - the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense - discuss matters. They’ve declared war on mutants, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff states. This isn’t easy on anyone. He and the president went to college together. He’s known him longer than his wife. He was the president. And now he’s just another casualty, a victim in this. And they aren’t the ones that made him one, he states. They were. The second Xavier raped the president’s mind to further his mutant agenda. The second he started to use the government for his own mutant purposes. Xavier did this. He takes no please in his. But they have to be ready for the next step. They have to publicly declare what they did and why. They have to walk into the White House pressroom right now and tell the country that the president is a casualty of mutant hostility and that they have control of the situation. They have the White House. The world must know that America…
The other man has been silent throughout. Suddenly, he announces that it’s amazing. You people have done what so many others could not… You have virtually destroyed human/mutant relations.
“You People”? the chairman repeats. He was also involved. What’s wrong with his eyes?
He isn’t speaking to the secretary of defense the other man replies. He’s speaking to Special Agent Xi’an Coy Manh. SHIELD Black Ops codename Karma. She’s one of Fury’s BlackOps trainees and one of the people they were trying to kill today. She’s taken control of he secretary’s mind and body.
On the screen, Fury’ face appears- He announces that they are under arrest for a number of reasons. But, for the time being, let’s go with treason and conspiracy to assassinate the president. He’ll get to the entire list of sins later.
The secretary slumps down like a marionette, whose strings are cut. Karma and other armed agents enter, announcing to the president that these are the last of the conspirators. The chairman draws his gun, intent on killing himself rather than submit to a mutant. Karma takes away his weapon and smashes his head against the table. He’s going to go down in history as one of the most evil scum on the face on the Earth. Don’t be a coward too.
Later, the X-Men, Fury, Karma, Frost, Alex Summers and Dazzler are at the funeral ceremony of Hank McCoy. Ororo cries, while Wolverine and Cyclops cover their friend’s coffin with earth.
Later at Xavier’s, they watch a news display of the events in Washington. Turning to Emma, Alison and Alex, Xavier tells them that the school is open to all of them, for as long as they like. He knows that they had things in their lives that were important to them, people they cared for. But, for the moment, those lives are over. They are now targets of the world media, which will, for a while, make them a target of aggression and prejudice.
Emma tells him that she’s not thinking very clearly at the moment. This violence is not her world. He knows. Xavier telepathically urges her not to blame herself. This was an act of hostility and racism. He wants this to be a school of new ideas. Not just his ideas. All ideas. And if he had any regrets in this world, the first one was always shutting her out.
After all this crap between them, he ended up at Xavier’s anyhow, Alex Summers tells his estranged brother, Scott. Is he all right, Scott asks. He froze, Alex admits. Happens to the best of them, Scott tells his brother. He froze, Alex repeats, and Scott was all like—
Scott asks him to stay for a while.
The reports show the death of Best and Ororo starts crying again. Xavier announces that a man once said, “there are only two questions man can asks himself that mean anything. Why did God create the world? And what do I do next?” What do they do next, Scott asks. He doesn’t know, Xavier admits.
