Xavier’s, the Professor’s study room…
Xavier, with his cat Mystique sitting on his lap, is talking with someone over the phone. He congratulates the person for doing so well, as he appreciates the fact that his assets are no longer frozen. It appears the Hellfire Club situation has been taken care of and trusts everything came through on his partner’s end as well.
Sitting in his room somewhere else and lifting some weights, Syndicate replies to the Professor’s questions. He mentions that his sister is doing well, only she’s now being investigated about where she got the money for the operation all of a sudden. He mocks that it’s always something. The Professor reminds Syndicate that he can take care of that as well. He says that someone in a high place will learn that was an insurance policy on Syndicate himself, since he is legally dead. Both of the Syndicate heads smirk that the Professor really has all angles covered and can’t thank him enough for it.
The Professor replies that no thanks are necessary. Anything he can do to help a fellow mutant, he’ll always gladly do. Actually, he has a new task. Xavier is interrupted, however, as his other phone rings. He apologizes to Syndicate, as they’ll have to discuss this later when he has a free moment. He answers the call, and tells Miss Pryde it’s so good to hear from her. Miss Pryde, impressed, jokes that the Professor really is psychic. Xavier corrects Theresa that they’ve actually got caller I.D. here at the mansion, and asks what he can do for her.
Talking on her cell at her kitchen, Theresa tells the Professor that she knows Katherine was a new boyfriend, but she doesn’t know all that much about him. Kitty usually isn’t so secretive with her and wonders if this boy is one of the Professor’s students. Xavier denies that. He explains that he met Kitty’s daughter before, and promises he’s a good kid and Theresa has nothing to worry about. It does ease Theresa’s mind hearing the Professor say that. But, she has to ask that, if the Professor can, to keep a closer eye on Kitty. Just for a couple of weeks while she tries to get Kitty to open up to her.
Xavier would be happy to. Theresa thanks him for that, and asks him to transfer her to Kitty’s room, as the automatic directory he has is so confusing to her. The Professor lies that Kitty’s actually in a training session right now, and that it’s best not to disturb her. He tries to avoid all interruptions when Kitty’s learning to better control her powers. Theresa wipes a tear from her eye, and claims that she understands. She hopes that the Professor doesn’t have her doing anything too strenuous, as she worries so much about her little girl. The Professor can assure Theresa that Kitty isn’t doing anything dangerous.
While talking to Theresa, Xavier takes a mysterious, brown “X”-marked wallet. He takes a key out of it and uses it to open up a drawer from his desk.
Elsewhere, downtown…
The X-Men gracefully jump out of their new plane. While firing an optic blast, Cyclops orders his team to make this fast as lives are at stake. Kitty agrees with that, joking that it’s their lives at stake! Holding hands with Iceman and sliding on his ice-slide, Bobby jokes that Kitty could have stayed at home, writing some love-letters to Spider-Man or something. They’ve got more than enough manpower to take on these losers, who don’t even have powers. These thugs are just wearing some red suits and white helmets and carry some guns.
Cyclops hits some of the thugs and warns Iceman not to underestimate their opponents. He explains tat, what these guys lack in super-power, they more than enough make up in firepower. Their leader, not wearing a helmet, shouts at the X-Men how they dare interfere with the Friends of Humanity. They are trying to right a great wrong, and they won’t be denied! He opens his men to open fire and to slaughter these gene-jokes!
Colossus tells the leader that he thinks he’s a very angry man. Also, he believes his crusade of hatred will require more than mere bullets. Peter uses his great strength to lift the ground up, and rolls his opponents over! He jokes if the picture is becoming more clear now?
Storm directs some of her winds on the Friends of Humanity, reminding them that they are attacking a hospital full of their humans because they offered to help poor mutant children get medical attention they can’t afford? She shouts that there’s a special kind of help for creeps like the Friends of Humanity… and she wouldn’t mind being the one to send them there! Scott reminds Ororo not to forget they’re the good guys. She can put their foes down hard… but not too hard. Storm lowers her adversaries hard on the ground, apologizing to offend Scott’s sensibilities. As long as a few bones get broken, it’s fine by her.
While Rogue uses some of her charged-up playing cards to take down more of the Friends of Humanity, Magician successfully dodges some bullets. He waves with his hand and causes the ground to swallow some of their enemies! Elliot states that he just doesn’t get it. He wonders how does attacking a hospital in brought daylight can get anyone but thrown in jail for the rest of their lives. He adds that if the X-Men wouldn’t have shown up, it would have been the police or the Ultimates.
Suddenly, Bobby is hit by a bullet, causing an immediate panic from Rogue. She takes out some more goons and rushes towards him, asking if he’s okay. Bobby sits down on the ground and places his hand on the wound on his other shoulder, claiming that he was just startled. His wound doesn’t even really hurt, and thinks he can fix it with his powers. Rogue thinks that’s weird.
Wolverine uses his claws to slice up one of the thugs, and swears that he’s just gone for a few weeks and the whole team is different. Nightcrawler and Pete aren’t getting along, and Kitty is dating that “loser in the webs.” And he wants to know who the new pretty boy on the team is. “What’s his name?” Logan asks. “Magician?” Kitty, standing behind Logan, mocks that if he would stick around for more than a few days at a time he would be able to keep up. The new guy’s really named Magician, and she calls him nice. And, Kitty defends, she has been dating Spider-Man for a while now and he isn’t a loser.
She wonders where Logan has been. Spidey totally saved their butts from the Marauders while Logan was gone. Logan, taking down another thug, grins that the key part in what Kitty just said was that he was really gone. That fiasco with the Marauders was an embarrassment and Logan’s glad he missed it.
Colossus rushes through a horde of Friends of Humanity, taking them all down at once. He jokes that this isn’t going so well for them. Cyclops fires another beam at more thugs and notices they are on their last legs. It’s time to take them down! Their leader can’t believe Cyclops thinks they are defeated. That this is all it takes to get rid of them. In case Scott hasn’t noticed, the leader adds, the gene-jokes are in the minority! The X-Men may have won this battle but the war is far from over!
Kitty whispers to Wolverine that she can’t believe the leader actually just said that battle/war speech. The leader becomes furious, and his eyes and neck start expanding! Kitty wonders what’s going on, as the leader grows immense in size, angrily proclaiming that the X-Men have infected him with their disease and covered him in their mutant filth! He’s going to kill all of the mutants for this!
Iceman believes that the leader is a mutant who hates mutants. He can’t believe the guy doesn’t see any conflict in that. The leaders shout that the X-Men are behind his mutant, defending that he isn’t a freak.
Westchester General Hospital…
Nightcrawler sits alone on Dazzler’s bed, quietly staring at her. Suddenly, Alison wakes up! Touching her face, she asks if that twit stabbed her. She notices Kurt, and asks the Elf where the rest of Charlie’s Angels are. The hallway? At home having a party? Or, is he the only one here? She wants to know where Warren is. But Kurt doesn’t respond, and just stares at her, shocked to hear her asking about Warren and not him.
Xavier’s…
Xavier meets up with Jean, and opens her cell below the mansion. She lies in bed, and Charles asks how she’s feeling. Jean opens her eyes, reminding the Professor that she keeps trying to tell him she’s fine and not a danger to anyone. He doesn’t have to keep her there. “Please”, Jean says.
The Professor claims that this is for Jean’s own good. He knows that she understands that. He’s just keeping her here under observation and is certain this will only be temporary. Jean gets up, defending that she isn’t a danger. She thinks Charles can’t possibly believe she’d hurt anyone here. She doesn’t remember what happened with Lilandra, but she knows it won’t happen again. She has surprised that side of her this long, and can continue to do so. Charles has to be sure about that. He turns away from her, saying that he’s sorry. Jean knows, and tells the Professor to just leave. She’ll close the door. Xavier looks at her one final time, and leaves.
Jean waves with her hand, and little green goblin-like creatures appear. One of them closes the door, and Jean tells them that at least they still listen to her.
The battle…
Colossus has been defeated, and Kitty thinks his arm is broken!
The leader of the Friends of Humanity pounds his fists on the ground, taking down the rest of the team as well, except for Elliot, who calmly faces the leader, asking if that’s the best he can do. The leader mocks that Elliot sure is a tough guy. He tries to grab Elliot, but he jumps away from him. He tells the leader that he can sure call him a tough guy, or something like that. Elliot knows that the leader may not recognize him, but reminds him that he has been on the news but understands that he’s still pretty new on the team. So he suggests he gets the leader as far away from his fallen teammates as possible before he causes any more damage.
The leader follows Elliot, wondering where he is going. He mocks if this is perhaps his mutant power – running scared? Elliot smiles that certainly isn’t the case. He introduces himself as Magician, and he can make things happen. Like this. He puts his hands in the air, and has a humongous boulder appears above the leader’s head, which Elliot has crash down on him! As Elliot jumps into safety, the leader destroys the boulder with his fists, shouting that he’ll kill Magician.
Elliot thinks he has been going about this all wrong, smiling that it was silly of him to do this the hard way. He transforms the ground and has it almost close down on the leader. He asks the guy if he’s impressed yet and punches him in the face, taking him out!
The other X-Men wake up. Scott tells them they need to put it together, as this leader guy is still out there and it won’t be easy to take him out. He wants to know who’s battle-ready. Suddenly, Elliot appears in front of them, holding an unconscious leader over his shoulder. He smiles to Scott that he can relax as it has all been taken care of. He can call the jet back, and they can all go home. As lot of amazed people stare at the victorious Magician, Kitty gets up, smiling that Elliot is totally sweet.
Xavier’s…
Nightcrawler returns home and passes Xavier’s study room. Xavier, who was busy reading, notices Kurt and calls out to him. When Kurt asks what’s up, the Professor asks Kurt where he has been, as he hardly saw him at the mansion for the last few days and the X-Men had to go on another mission without him. He asks if something’s wrong. Kurt claims that he has been dealing with something personal and prefers to be alone. He starts to walk away, ignoring the fact that the Professor tries to reach out to him. Charles sighs. He suddenly senses something.
Xavier goes to open the door, and finds… Nick Fury! Fury claims that they need to talk. Xavier asks what he can do for Fury and suggests they finish this in his study. Fury follows the Professor and notices how nice and quiet it is here today. Xavier mentions that his students are out on a mission right now. Fury asks Charles if he really thinks he doesn’t know that already. Xavier enters his study, adding that of course Fury already knew. He asks what Fury wants to talk about.
Fury agrees to play Xavier’s little game and act like he doesn’t know Xavier didn’t already pulled it out of his brain. He reminds Charles he really doesn’t need that façade. Xavier defends that he never enters a mind without permission and orders Fury to get on with it, as he’s trying his patience.
Fury wants to talk about the new recruit Xavier has – Magician. The kid with the reality-altering powers. And he wants him. Fury has seen footage of Elliot from Chicago at Frost’s school and believes the boy has great potential and would do more good with the Ultimates. Elliot would be protecting the world and not putting out tiny race-related fires like he’s currently doing with the X-Men.
Xavier asks Fury if he has mistaken his operation as a personal talent school. He knows Fury thinks Wolverine was one of the Ultimates, as often as he sent him on errands. The answer is no. Fury claims he wasn’t asking. He knows Elliot is still underage – barely – so he can’t just outright claim the government is entitled to him. Therefore, he went to the boy’s parents. They didn’t even know he was…
Interrupting Fury, Charles is shocked to hear about Elliot’s parents! He reminds Fury that, when he brought Elliot there and turned him over into his custody, Fury told him that Elliot had actually killed his parents. Fury asks Charles to wait a minute. He asks when he turned Elliot over into Xavier’s custody and what Xavier is talking about. He never even heard of Elliot until he started running around with the X-Men. Charles believes that something is very wrong here.
