The sewers…
Scott, Jean, Iceman and Rogue are walking into the sewers, trying to find the Morlocks. Bobby thanks Jean for making their minds think they’re smelling pumpkin pie instead of poop, but he thought they weren’t the X-Men anymore, and that he’d get to play video games all the time. To this, Scott replies that, when he disbanded the X-Men and turned the mansion into a school, Bobby playing video games wasn’t at the top of his agenda. Bobby is glad that at least they’ll have no more missions… he thinks he heard that. Or was he making that up?
Slightly annoyed, Jean telepathically contacts Scott, asking him why they brought Rogue and Iceman. Scott jokes probably because they didn’t want them to burn down the school. Returning to speech, Scott leads them into a tunnel. Bobby mentions he thinks Toad can handle himself, because he was only like, half a week ago, a terrorist in service of Magneto. No offense, he then tells Rogue. Having had enough, Scott curtly tells Bobby to please – he means this in the nicest possible way – to shut the hell up before he pushes him in the water. Likewise angry, Jean chides Bobby that this could be a real rescue mission, and they don’t want the Morlocks to hear them coming. Bobby apologizes because he didn’t realize they were sneaking. Nobody told him they were sneaking.
Despite the warning, Bobby still mutters to himself, causing Scott to ask Bobby what’s wrong with him. It’s only been a few weeks since the mansion became a school, and he can’t be this out of practice. Bobby admits he rambles when he’s in the dark. Rogue gently touches him and teases that he gets scared in the dark. Bobby tells her to shut up.
The four arrive in Morlock central, where Toad told them they would find the Morlocks. Scott asks Jean if she can fly ahead and see if she can find where they are living –the place looks completely deserted. As Jean flies off, Rogue wonders what they are looking for, but Scott has no idea, because Toad didn’t tell him much. Suddenly, Jean is shocked by something… and far behind her Bobby says he’s not smelling pumkin’ pie anymore.
Sunder leads his Morlocks into battle. Sunder punches Scott’s glasses off his face, but Scott quickly closes his eyes. Elsewhere, Jean calls out to Scott, but is under attack herself by Callisto. Sunder recognizes the X-Men and believes they have come for their “two spies.” He suggests they give them a “warm welcome.” Scott doesn’t understand what Sunder means by “two spies,” though…
Meanwhile, at a construction site in Chicago, Illinois, near Emma Frost’s school…
Colossus’ co-workers take a break for lunch and invite him to come along. Peter thanks his friends, but says he’ll stay there and watch the tools, since he needs to save his money anyway. Once Peter’s friends are gone, he is approached by… Bishop and Storm! Bishop asks Peter if they can talk for a minute. Peter replies that he has the whole hour to listen to Bishop, but he wants to have some time to finish his lunch. He also tells Ororo it’s good to see her. Bishop begins saying that Cyclops may have disbanded the team, but he and Storm are forming a new team and they would like to…
Peter apologizes for interrupting, but he doesn’t want to waste Bishop’s time and says that he’s simply not interested. He was happy to hear Scott say he put an end to this. He’s happy now. He has an apartment there, and this job. He’s close to Jean-Paul, who is even thinking about moving in with him after the semester. Things are good. After the Mafia and the X-Men, Peter welcomes a break and isn’t anxious to return to that life. Peter is tired, and wants Bishop to allow him to have his rest.
Bishop tells him fair enough. He won’t beg. As they leave, Ororo tells Peter it was good to see him too, and that she’s happy for him. Peter thanks Ororo, and finishes his sandwhich.
The Academy of Tomorrow…
Finding Dazzler standing in his doorway, Warren says he is thrilled to finally see her again. He explains that after Peter told him what happened to her, and what Kurt did to her, he did everything he could to find her, even look on the Internet to see if her band was doing any gigs, but he couldn’t find anything.
Alison hugs him and chidingly tells him to shut up. Alison explains she didn’t want Warren to find her. She was a little angry at him for not being there to rescue her after what Kurt did to her. But she now realizes that was stupid and that she was just being a girl over it, because there was no way Warren could have known what was going on. Warren jokes he’ll be mad about that later, but for now he’s just glad to see her okay. He asks if she just came to see him. Alison admits she pretty much is, but she does have an agenda.
She asks Warren if he wants to join the X-Men, to which Warren admits he does, but he thought Scott disbanded them. That’s what Peter said. And he also thought Alison was done with the X-Men. Alison corrects Scott isn’t involved in this team, and she thinks the new team exists out of good people. Her band has broken up, and she has been couch-surfing from friend to friend and, frankly, she’s just bored now. After she asks Warren if he’s in, Warren promises that he is, if Alison is. Alison smiles that’s cool, and wants Warren to pack his things, because this place smells too much of a high school to her and that gives her the creeps.
The sewers…
Sans visor, Cyclops fires both his eyebeams at the Morlocks and warns the others not to let them win, despite their enemies bigger numbers in total. Bobby notices Scott taking his optic visor out of his jacket, and he says he brought it just in case. Bobby freezes into Iceman, with a new look – bigger, hulking arms to fight with! Bobby promises Scott it’s okay to just call them X-Men for tonight. Just “people” or “guys” is getting old real quick.
Caliban grows in size and smashes Iceman’s ice-slide apart. Rogue attacks Caliban but he doesn’t think a woman can defeat him. However, even as he slams Rogue onto the grround… Caliban finds he is getting… weaker? Rogue smiles and thanks Caliban for his powers: she now looks just as big as he does, complete with the grey skin. She lifts Caliban up and tosses him against a wall.
Scott confronts Sunder, and asks what he wants and why the Morlocks attacked them. Sunder answers they just want to be left alone, and want the X-Men to leave. Scott points out they can’t do that without their man, and they won’t go without him. When Sunder explains both of Scott’s spies are now prisoners of war to them, Scott replies that doesn’t understand, since he only sent one guy, and it wasn’t to spy on the Morlocks. Where is he?
In a separate room of the tunnel, a bound Toad regains consciousness, wondering where he is. Also tied-up, Toad Kurt tells him to stay calm and promises him he’ll get them out of there… right now!
Sunder tosses Scott away, but he lands on his feet and hits Sunder with a powerful optic blast. Knocked off his feet, Sunder asks the other Morlockd if they see. The X-Men came to oppress them! To bring them into the open – for persecution – for ridicule! And for that, he wants them to die!
Suddenly, Kurt teleports in together with Toad, who uses his tongue to pull Sunder away from Scott. Kurt then teleports Scott to higher grounds, where he’ll be safe. Scott is surprised to find Kurt there, but Kurt claims there’s no time to explain now. Sunder gets up and grabs Toad’s tongue, and swings him around, so Kurt teleports to Toad and helps him out.
Elsewhere, Callisto orders some other Morlocks out of her way, because she wants to deal with Jean personally and grabs Jean by her throat. Jean shouts at the Morlocks that they’re crazy, again trying to explain that they didn’t came here to fight. She tries to push Callisto away from her but, on Callisto’s head, she can see the odd, little green goblin creatures that have been haunting her for a while. Jean accidentally removes Callisto’s eye-patch, who warns Jean not to, but it’s too late. Green tentacles emerge from Callisto’s eyes, swallowing Jean!
Scott sees it happening and runs to help, fighting his way through a number of Morlocks to get to Jean. Unfortunately, his way is blocked by Sunder, who gives him a hard punch to the chest. Sunder then lifts up a huge boulder and tells Scott that the Morlocks just want to be left alone, but they will defend their home from outsiders. He tells Scott that he and his team shouldn’t have come there. He needs to be made an example of. Sunder is sorry, but he wants Scott to die for his mistake.
Kurt teleports behind Sunder, and corrects that Scott doesn’t need to die. Grabbing Sunder’s head, Kurt turns it abruptly, snapping his neck. As Sunder collapses, his eyes rolling back in his head, Scott, in disbelief at what he just saw, asks Kurt what he just did.
Nearby, Caliban apologizes to Callisto as he knocks her out. Once unconscious, Callisto’s tentacles pull themselves away from Jean, who asks Caliban why he did that. He explains it was the only way to stop the tentacles, which would have killed Jean if he hadn’t. He just couldn’t let that happen.
His own foe running away, Iceman takes Rogue on his ice-slide, suggesting they go find out what stopped the fight. Arriving where Sunder fell, the two find a distraught Kurt begging the Morlocks to stop fighting. Kurt didn’t want to kill Sunder, but the Morlocks shouldn’t have attacked the X-Men. He thinks this isn’t right. Having this place there, for mutants like him and the other Morlocks, is great, but Kurt thinks attacking everyone who would come down there is foolish. He’s certain this place won’t survive another attack like this. There has to be another way.
Caliban corrects that Sunder is not dead… just hurt. Sunder will heal from this, but it will take time. He’s very strong, and that’s why they all agreed to make Sunder their leader. Caliban thinks they use this time to elect a better leader.
The crisis over, Scott asks Jean if she’s alright. Jean replies she is. She was just taken off guard. She then asks about him, to which Scott replies that it hurts as bad as it looks – but he’ll be fine. Toad joins the gang and begins to apologize for messing this up, but Scott interrupts, wanting to talk about it later. Scott also thanks Kurt for his help, and finds it good to see him back into action. But now, he thinks it’s time for Kurt to come home so they can help him. Kurt refuses. Scott explains to Kurt that they need him, and they can help him deal with his anger. They’re friends and they want to help him. Scott is confident Kurt needs to come back with them.
Kurt rather thinks what he needs is to feel accepted. That he needs a place where he belongs, where he won’t stand out as the odd one, or the ugly one. He doesn’t want to feel inferior anymore. He’s sorry for what he did to Dazzler and is coping with that the best way he can, but what he needs right now is to stay there. Scott thinks about it for a while, before concluding “fine.” They leave, and Jean promises to Kurt that, if he ever needs anything, anything at all, he’ll know where to find them.
Sydney, Australia…
Bishop and Storm have teleported Angel and Dazzler to their Australian headquarters, after which Alison curses she’ll never get used to the teleportation. Warren asks if this is where they’ll live, which Bishop confirms. As soon as they’ve finished recruiting, they’ll focus on cleaning up the place, and make it livable. Hearing this as he enters, pushing a cart, Pyro thanks Bishop for that, as he would prefer it not having to do all the moving himself, like now. Warren doesn’t know the newcomer, but Pyro introduces himself and claims to be a big fan of Warren’s.
Storm asks Bishop who’s next. Bishop has one more on his list, but she’s not where she’s supposed to be. Xavier’s death is already changing a lot of things, and he doesn’t know where she could be. Storm suggests they recruit Wolverine, if they need only one more. Bishop promises to think about it. He then separates himself from Storm and asks Alison for a moment, to talk about Angel.
Once alone, Bishop tells her that he has a very specific plan for this team, like who needs to be on it, and things they need to accomplish. But Alison’s boyfriend isn’t part of that plan. Alison angrily remarks if Bishop wants to boss around a bunch of kids – if this is a big power trip for him… she’s out. However f his plan includes her, Bishop will get Warren as well. He goes? She goes. Bishop understands, “loud and clear.” Alison leaves him, concluding that Warren is twice the X-Man she’ll ever be, and Bishop acts like he’s in the way. As a final parting shot, she calls him a jerk. Alone, Bishop dispassionately watches her leave.
Xavier’s…
The former X-Men and Toad are back home. Bobby takes off his jacket, mocking that their mission sucked. Toad apologizes once again. He really just thought they could help the Morlocks. It sickens him to know they’re so ashamed of themselves that they think they deserve to live down there. Ignoring him, Scott notices Jean wandering herself upstairs and asks what’s wrong. Jean answers she’s just tired and wants to go to bed. Bobby doesn’t understand what Jean’s problem is, and Rogue reminds him she almost died today. Bobby still doesn’t understand – it’s like that every day for them. Or, well, used to be.
Once upstairs, Jean enters her room and closes the door behind her. She stares into a mirror, and notices the little green goblin creatures crawling over her head again. She sighs, and then quietly stares into the mirror. Jean activates her Phoenix powers, which make the goblins go away. Flames dancing through her hair, Jean speaks a single word in a deep, dark tone in her voice. “Soon.”
Below, Scott agrees to play one game with Bobby and then he’ll take a shower. He doesn’t even know why he’s doing this, because he knows it’s going to be embarrassing for him. Toad laughs about it and is determined to see this. As they arrive in the game room, Scott is stunned to find a new student there… none other than… Kwannon?! Or, was that… Betsy? She apologizes, and explains that one of the students let “them” in, and “they” just made “themselves” at home. Oh, and calling her “Psylocke,” is just fine.
The sewers…
Kurt thanks Callisto for letting him stay there, and for the new clothes she gave him. Callisto admits she agrees with Kurt, and actually thinks all the Morlocks do. Violence should not be their first recourse to outsiders. She thinks to prepare for war to the extent they had been doing is to invite it. It’s almost as if they expected it so much, they almost welcomed it. She thinks they’re going to live by a whole bunch of new rules.
Kurt is glad to hear that, though he just doesn’t want to be the one who’s going to tell that to Sunder when he wakes up. In fact, he doesn’t want to be anywhere near him. Callisto tells Kurt not to worry about Sunder. He’s fallen out of favor, and he’ll either fall in line or be asked to leave when he wakes up. They just let Kurt stay here because they’re going to need a new leader to implement all of their new rules. Kurt asks Callisto if, by that, she means him. All the Morlocks look at Kurt, and she confirms. “Yes, you.”
