An angry, protesting crowd make their way through the streets. The anti-mutant protesters are carrying their prisoner - a hapless pizza delivery guy. Spider-Man (the real one) tries to appeal to the mob: pizza dude good, mob violence bad.
As he tries to reason with the crowd, Nightcrawler, dressed as the Creepy Crawler, sits on a roof nearby and watches the scene. The psychic Bamf only he sees asks if he isn’t going to help. Nightcrawler replies that Spidey is a natural at this. People love him. One man shouts that the pizza dude is a mutie. They saw him leave flowers at the Treehouse. Pizza dude protests the X-Men were his best tippers. Another guy claims, his neighbor’s mom heard he’s got like unnatural powers.
Is that a Guiseppe’s shirt? Spidey asks and decides he does have unnatural powers. That’s the second-best pizza in Manhattan! Point is, this is New York. They’ve got a whole ton of ways to judge people, but what’s in their DNA isn’t one of them.
A man shouts that it is self-defense against muties, and yet another shouts Orchis are offering bounties.
A Stark Sentinel arrives and applauds their enterprising spirits, but its tests show pizza dude is human, much to the crowd’s disappointment.
Nightcrawler decides he can go leave but the Bamf calls him out for letting Spider-Man deal with his #*$%. His #*$%? Just because it’s mutant-related? Kurt shoots back. He didn’t ask for an imaginary friend! Do them both a favor and bamf off! The Bamf retorts he isn’t imaginary, and Kurt knows it. He has his own ideas to who the Bamf really is and the depressing thing is he hasn’t asked even once! But hey - he’s a Spidey now, better to ignore all that complicated mutant backstory, right? His boss thought Kurt was someone who led with his heart. Always doing what is right, even if it hurts! But he guesses, he just switched off his heart.
The Sentinel announces that Orchis will keep the captive for interrogation and Kurt listens, horrified. Spider-Man isn’t having it. The Sentinel scans him, then proclaims him a mutant and grabs him with the other hand.
Spider-Man sputters, he would be proud to be a mutant, but he is just a friendly neighborhood science accident, so…
The crowd is cowed for a moment, then turns against him with shouts of “kill the mutie!”
From a rooftop, Mystique launches a rocket at the crowd, which - with Kurt’s help - finds its way right into the Sentinel’s mouth. Open wide and say – aah! panicked pizza dude ends the sentence. Spider-Man snags pizza dude with a line of web and brings them both to the ground.
Not bad, Spidey tells Nightcrawler, who thanks him and preens he has been practicing. Spidey clarifies he didn’t mean the one-liner and asks if that blue lady had a bazooka. She’s very resourceful, Kurt admits, and can actually create cavities inside her body to hide weapons. Spider-Man interrupts, noting she shot those at the mutant haters instead of the actual mutant-murdering machine. She takes rejection very personally, Kurt replies, then exclaims as he sees Mystique hitting people with her bazooka and demanding her baby.
He teleports to her side and calmly asks her to stop it. There will be more Sentinels coming. Maybe Hounds too. Spider-Man points out they are getting less fussy about whom they snatch. Like anyone who makes trouble gets pinged as a “mutant.”
As Mystique runs, Kurt asks Spidey to get Pizza Dude to safety (and the rest of the appalling bigots) and follows her. Sure he doesn’t want help? Spider-Man asks. Kurt declines. That’s his mom!
He begs her to stop - they need to talk. She shouts back that he helped those animals! They have to pay for stealing her baby! He shouts, she needs help. It’s been decades since she lost her son!
Elsewhere, Silver Sable loses visual range and can only eavesdrop as Mystique retorts; does he think she doesn’t know that? Sarcastically, she points out she knows the difference between a Bavarian forest and present day New York. She knows her memories are a mess and she is dysfunctional, but the pain and rage are hers!
From a trash dumpster, she gets another hidden gun, causing him to exclaim, how many weapons does she have stashed away? She retorts that he keeps slicing them with his ridiculous sword, so she will keep stealing more. She orders him to leave her alone.
Nightcrawler begins that she didn’t lose her son – she rejected him. It isn’t healthy to choose trauma. She calls him a hypocrite. She doesn’t know why he is so obsessed with her, but there is a sickly pleasure in narrowing everything down to a single point, no matter how painful. A single simple obsession. That’s true for her lost son and it’s true for his absurd costume. All his heroic ‘*$%. Both are distractions. The difference is she admits it and she doesn’t need to pretend she is having fun. Now leave her alone!
She fires at him and he teleports. Then he is alone, muttering in German: Dumme verdammte Waffen!
Silver Sable is joined by Vulture, his Hounds and their latest victims. Vulture accuses her of cheating, using Orchis resources to get intel on her man. Calmly, she points out that she was under the impression she worked for Orchis. Only because she refuses to take the damn kill fee, he retorts. She repeats, when Silver Sable Inc accepts a contract
Yes, yes, they always get their man, he repeats bored. At this point, they are just here to keep the real stars on their toes. Contract’s up as soon as the little blue punk is here in the facility. Whatever she gets paid, depends on whether it’s her guys or his who take him. He chuckles, his money is on the Hounds… Scent, scent! Fatale repeats, crouching near to Silver Sable
Silver Sable asks where they are. They enter via the teleporter next to the old X-tree… Vulture scoffs at the idea of sharing that intel with her. They could be anywhere, even another world. Spins your head, doesn’t it? Looks like someone’s been spinning heads for sure, she mutters looking at Fatale.
Vulture informs her that was Mystique’s work. She is low priority, since she is basically doing their propaganda work for them. Does she remember her old pal Travers? he seemingly changes the subject. He was working on a gadget that sends a telepathic signal short range. He tried it on Mystique: “Surrender now or ten humans die.” Know what happened?
They walk past Travers, sweeping the floor, muttering about no hope, only rage. Massive aneurysm, Vulture explains. Good for nothing but muttering and mopping since. He suggests she quit. She had too many near misses. Scent! Fatale whines. Vulture remarks Silver Sable is starting to smell like her target.
Later:
Silvija and Kurt are having dinner. “No hope, only rage,” she repeats. So much for just having fun together, he replies. That’s what they got when they tried to contact Mystique telepathically. She thought he should know what’s in his mother’s mind.
Clearly trying to change the subject, Kurt commends her on the trap she and her team laid earlier. When she tries to interrupt, he tells her he found a recording of the Lila Cheney concert she attended with her father. Also, he had some ideas about how she could pivot Symkaria’s reliance on mercenary finance into a more ethical framew…
She shouts his name forcefully. She admits this is no longer about simply having fun and they need to have a real talk. He is doing everything in his power to focus on frivolities! Punching muggers. Fighting ridiculous villains. One-liners. Them!
He gets up and tells her he is through with… He can’t be through with anything he hasn’t committed to do! she retorts. He swears and teleports away to the tower in the park, but she has grabbed onto him. Angrily, he shouts she cannot be here! He lashes out shouting she is a hypocrite! She agrees but that doesn’t’ change anything. His people need him. From his mom right on down.
He looks down then bursts out he spent his adult life sacrificing for his people. He has spilled his blood… lost his soul… and why? A genetic quirk! A fatuous distinction between sentient beings that has caused more horror than any heart can bear. He has lived and died for a war his people did not start and declined to win and where did it get them? Where did it get him? Alone! Bloody handed. Brokenhearted. A tribe of one. Don’t speak to him about “need”! He deserves to stop! He…
Gently, she kisses him. Life doesn’t give a /&%# what you deserve, she tells him. There are no coffee breaks for a good heart. He begins to cry silently, as she continues love isn’t all you need, then she hugs him.
There is a buzzing sound and she swears. She has to go but they need to meet later. There is something she must tell him. Helmets on or off? he asks. She’s going to pretend he didn’t say that, she states as she leaves.
On a street, Redsergant Kremer is waiting for her out of uniform. Silvija asks what he needs. They are off-duty until tomorrow. Kremer aims a gun at her head.
In the meantime, Kurt has put on his Creepy Crawler outfit and asks the indigents in the park to help him locate Sad Suzy.
Unimpressed, Silvija warns Kremer she could take that off him and break his spine in three moves. He is not an idiot, he replies. If he doesn’t send a particular text message in ten minutes, every SSI employee above toilet polisher receives a list of times and places she has compromised their payday by #*%& their target. He bugged her, she realizes. Like a professional, he replies, like she taught him.
Silvija looks away announcing this is pointless. She has decided to cancel the contract and return the money. Too late, he leers. Not going to happen. Because he already blew his cut in a poker game at the Bar With No Name? she ventures. He blusters then replies, it ain’t gonna happen cause of all the poor peasants back home who rely on them weighing on her conscience. They finish the job, whatever it takes, and if she still has this unprofessional guilt after they are done? No biggie. You take your mind off it. You move on to the next hit. That’s the job.
In the park, Mystique sits at a fire, muttering about her lost baby.
Kurt takes off his mask and announces they need to talk… and they do.
Later:
The park, Nightcrawler’s tower where Silver Sable is waiting. Nightcrawler arrives and asks what she wanted to tell him. That she’s sorry, she replies without looking at him. The other four members of her team switch off stealth mode and trap him with their ray guns.
Orchis:
Over one of his mutant victims’ bodies, Vulture instructs his team how to introduce the techno-organic matter, when someone informs him that the Wild Pack have arrived - with their unconscious prisoner. They are on the other side of the teleportation gate. All the DNA and other tests like mitochondrial DNA check out. Pleasantly surprised, Vulture is about to authorize payment, then becomes suspicious. After all, the target’s mother is a shapeshifter. Mitochondrial DAN runs in the mother’s line, no? Could that be Mystique in disguise?
One of his hounds, Animaxx, licks Nightcrawler’s face and checks his DNA. She confirms there is a Y-chromosome. Profile is a perfect match.
The gate opens and they step through. Redsergent Kramer stays behind keeping a lookout out for Mystique. She will not come, Nightcrawler groans. She lost him long ago. She would rather the rage than the reunion. In war, sooner or later everyone must choose their priorities, and love is not all you need.
Elsewhere in the facility, techno-organic tentacles emerge from the ground, trying to open a vault.
