In the middle of the night, Spiderman comes to the X-mansion to let the X-Men know about J. Jonah Jameson’s Daily Bugle investigation into Graydon Creed, anti-mutant candidate for President. Bishop, who has never met Spiderman, mistakes him for an intruder and attacks him. Soon the other X-men arrive on the scene and break them up, making introductions and allowing Spiderman to deliver his message.
Five hours later at Fall’s Edge, the headquarter of X-Factor, Mystique is watching her son Graydon Creed on TV. She is secretly planning to assassinate him, but decides to change her plans when she notices Iceman in his covert role as a volunteer for the campaign.
Meanwhile, aboard a jet at JFK airport in New York, Beast and Cyclops are trailing Jameson, while Storm and Joseph follow in their cloaked Blackbird.
At the same time, in London, a reporter for the Daily Bugle named Nick Bandouveris is in fear for his life after discovering that Graydon Creed’s parents were Mystique and Sabretooth. He knows that he might be killed before he can get the information to Jameson.
Back in the Blackbird, Storm is attempting to explain Cable’s convoluted history to Joseph, when another ship comes out of cloak directly above the plane with Jameson, Beast, and Cyclops on it. The new ship carries the Brotherhood of Mutants, now led by a mysteriously evil-sounding Havok. He breaks open the jet and tries to attack Jameson, saying that the Brotherhood doesn’t need help to destroy Creed. Beast gets Jameson to safety while Cyclops starts to fight his brother Havok. They both fall out of the plane and continue to fight in mid-air. As they fall Cyclops tries to convince Havok of the error of his ways. Joseph manages to magnetically hold together the jet, and tries to land it at a nearby airport. Havok manages to teleport away before hitting the water below, and Cyclops is saved by Storm. Joseph lands the jet at the airport, prompting questions from Jameson towards Beast about the presence of what appears to be Magneto on their team.
Back in London, Nick Bandouveris is killed by Bastion because he still needs Creed to fulfill a role in getting Operation: Zero Tolerance off the ground and if Creed’s heritage became publicly known his career would end.
