"I never seen no dead bodies before but I knew it was her and I knew she was dead" a teenage boy explains to someone as they sit in a coffee house. "Did you touch the body...or move it in anyway?" the other person asks. "I don't know how long I was there. I didn't touch nothing. Why would - why would you ask that?" the boy exclaims, before asking if he is in trouble. "I know you're not lying. I know you had nothing to do with the death of this girl" the other person announces, adding "As I investigate, I want to be assured I will be discovering the site as it was left". The boy tells the other person not to worry about that. "I ran like crazy!" he exclaims, adding that he heard something, like a train. "Thing it, trains don't go near them tunnels, right?" he adds.
"Then I heard the breathing" he adds, before spilling his coffee nervously. "I - I - dammit" he mutters. "Take your time. It's more important that I have the details accurately than quickly" the other person remarks. The boy apologizes, before continuing to recount the events that transpired earlier, "A giant baby alligator or something somebody flushed down the damn toilet ate my girlfriend and tried to kill me. Everybody talks about you, man. On the streets, people say...people say you're a guy that helps people like me". "Please, son...you mean people like us. I help people like us" the enigmatic mercenary called Fantomex exclaims.
Meanwhile, off the coast of San Francisco, on Utopia, home to many of the worlds remaining mutants. Three of whom are involved in trying to save a fourth. "Once the subject is restrained -" Professor Charles Xavier begins, before Emma - the White Queen - Frost interrupts: "He's Scott bloody Summers, Charles, not "the subject-", but as Xavier's telepathy probes Cyclops, he points out that they do not know who he is right now. Standing nearby is Elizabeth - Psylocke - Braddock, while Xavier declares that it doesn't matter what danger he has trained Scott to fight, or how gifted a warrior and strategist he is, he has never had to face evil incarnate within the walls of his own mind. "The Void could be seizing the whole of his identity for all we know".
"If there's one thing even evil incarnate won't shake him on, it's his identity" Emma declares, before telling Scott to stay strong, assuring him that she is coming for him. Emma moves to the other seat next to Xavier, who tells her that it bears repeating that if she engages the Void on his own turf she risks being invaded again herself. The White Queen declares that she is well aware of the risks, pointing out that short of lobotomy, they have no other choice. "And Psylocke, dear? You should know I trust Charles Xavier explicitly and completely. If he gives you the order - cut both our heads off" Emma declares. "As you wish" Betsy replies, readying her psychic knife.
At that moment, inside the mind of Scott - Cyclops - Summers, the leader of the X-Men, walks through his own mind, dressed in a black suit, he calls out for Emma, while the Void appears behind him. Reaching a counter and putting his hand on a "guest book" he remarks that he could have sworn Emma was here a second ago. "Scott ---why couldn't you save us?" calls out the Void, manifested into five versions of Jean "Phoenix" Grey, Scott's ex-wife. "I've been busy?" Scott replies as he falls to the ground.
Meanwhile, in the laboratory of the X-Club, Warren "Angel" Worthington III, Madison Jeffries, Dr Kavita Rao and James Bradley a.k.a. Doctor Nemesis are watching the Master of Magnetism - Magneto - as he proceeds to use his powers in front of them. "Sugar, Dr Rao?" Doctor Nemesis asks. "No, thank you, Dr Nemesis" Kavita replies, before telling Magneto that he can stop now. "One ... more ...second!" Magneto replies, hands against some sort of contraption. "There. That's all - I - have. Is that acceptable?" Magneto declares. "Hmmph. Hardly" Doctor Nemesis mutters, while Kavita remarks that even if Magneto was at full power and they had Storm working on wind and hydro, Magneto would have to keep at that capacity for nineteen hours a day to be of use.
"He'll die of exhaustion and the island will just start sinking all over again" Kavita declares. "Dammit. Back to the drawing board, eh, Jeffries?" Doctor Nemesis declares. The former Alphan just shrugs his shoulders, to which Doctor Nemesis exclaims "For the love of God, if you can't pay attention -", but Jeffries interrupts him, "Can you - you guys don't see things the way I see them" Jeffries exclaims, declaring that there is something in the air. "We've been invaded". Doctor Nemesis corrects Madison, "We were invaded. There were Predators -" he begins, before Madison exclaims "No - not that - watch". Kavita asks if she needs to get Cyclops, but Jeffries tells everyone to watch, and shows everyone a mass of small recording nanobots. "Like little dust motes that were - they speak a strange language, hang on - they're here to learn" Madison exclaims, dropping a cube of them onto the table.
"Seven hundred and eighty-four trillion, just right here". Madison exclaims. "In the air, in our lungs, all across the island". Doctor Nemesis picks up the cube and asks where they came from. "And who do we go hit?" Warren asks, standing up. Jeffries replies that they came from within the Predators, explaining that is why the Predators were sent here. "Remember how they'd all been modified for some reason?" Jeffries asks, explaining that they were not supposed to kill everyone here, but scare them. "And killing them released the swarm" Madison explains, adding that the nanobots have been studying everyone here. "Who we are. What our powers are; how they work". Sipping a drink, Madison adds that when they are done, they have been travelling back to whomever sent the Predators here and spilling their nano-guts.
"Anyway, how'd your thing go?" Jeffries asks Magneto, who replies "That's two crises to deal with". "Divide and conquer. Who has what?" Doctor Nemesis asks. "Have your team deal with this nano-invasion. Isolate, eliminate, analyze the little bastards and figure who it is wants to know about us so badly" Magneto declares, adding that he will deal with the incredible sinking asteroid. "Are you going to somehow magically become even more powerful? If all of us combined can't keep the island from sinking... well, forgive me for saying so but I don't give a damn who you are or how long you've been causing trouble, you're not going to stop us all from drowning by dinner!" Doctor Nemesis exclaims
"Why don't you let me fail first before condemning me, hmm? You just figure out where this swarm came from" Magneto retorts. "Magneto!" Warren exclaims, but Doctor Nemesis suggests they let him go. "I'm going to see a man about keeping us afloat" Magneto declares, before Warren asks who is going to brief Scott.
But at that moment, inside his mind, "I have things to do!" Scott calls out as he unleashes an optic blast at the Void, still materializing in various forms of Jean Grey. "Not good enough" one of them exclaims. "Never good enough" another declares. "Keeping you awake". "The sinking feeling". "You just don't have it". Scott shouts "Shut up! Shut up!", while the Void moves in on him, "Let me in. Let me give you greatness" it exclaims. "I will make you the man you always wanted to be". "I will give you power". "But know deep down you're not".
Suddenly, "Ahem! Scott Summers doesn't need lessons in manhood from snarling little commas of ink like you trollops!" the White Queen booms as she arrives in Scott's mind. "The cat came back" the Void exclaims. "Stupid". "Hey babe" Scott calls out. "Bad dogs" Emma remarks as energy swirls around her, and as the manifestations of the Void approach her, they shatter. "Wow. How'd you do that?" Scott asks. "It's not really real, is it, darling? We're living the life of the mind. And in here anything is possible. Lucidity is a weapon" Emma declares, taking Scott's hand and leading the way up a staircase, though the Void chases them. "Remember, darling, this is your head we're running through. These are your thoughts. If you believe we're being chased - then we are absolutely being chased" Emma explains.
At that moment, the staircase gives way, and the Void falls, Scott stumbles and Emma grabs him. "But the Void is inside my head, isn't it? It left you and is attacking me - or is this my imagination? Am I dreaming?" Scott asks as he hangs from the edge of the remaining part of the staircase. Emma reaches out for Scott and grabs his hand, telling him that he has been psychically invaded, yes, and yet, in this landscape, the psycho realities he experiences are ultimately created by him. "Have you ever drowned in a dream, my love? If you let yourself believe you're drowning--" Emma remarks, and suddenly Scott falls into the Void, wearing only shorts, "Dammit!" he exclaims.
Suddenly, Cyclops' body in the real world convulses, and he moans. "The Void has separated them!" Xavier exclaims. "I don't want to do this. I don't want to -" Betsy remarks quietly, but Charles tells her that they remain unconscious. "All is, at least for the moment, not lost" he explains, pointing out that Emma seems to be remain in control. "But if he wakes up before she does - strike!" Xavier orders, so Betsy stands ready, her psychic knives aimed at Cyclops' face.
Meanwhile, Magneto stands before Namor the Sub-Mariner and asks if the Prince of Atlantis could bring him up-to-date on some current events. "Tell me about your people. Tell me what's happened during my absence". The Sub-Mariner frowns, and remains silent, before asking "You haven't decided to make sport of me, have you, Magneto? That would not end well for you" the Avenging Son exclaims. Magneto replies that he meant no offense, explaining that he merely detected a change in the status quo of Atlantis and her people. "Things happen. My home - my people - through a horrifying and impossible series of events - are scattered like seeds beneath the waves" Namor reveals.
"We have a word for that. 'Diaspora'" Magneto explains. "Yes. I'm not a moron, Magneto" the Sub-Mariner exclaims, before asking Magneto what he wants. "Hah - of course. Forgive me. I've spent a long time with a somewhat unique alien intelligence and - my social skills are lacking" the Master of Magnetism replies, before explaining that this island - the asteroid that Scott pulled up - is sinking. "The engines keeping it afloat were a temporary solution at best and we lack the resources to fabricate more" Magneto announces.
"Did the boy-king Summers really move his whole species to a rock that would sink as soon as they arrived?" Namor asks. "That seems ... dubiously planned" he adds. "Like the lord and leader of 75% of the Earth suddenly finding his people homeless and adrift on the currents. As you say... things happen!" Magneto declares. "What do you want, Magneto? I will not ask again" Namor declares, narrowing his eyes. "A tower. A pillar. Around which your people will have their home and my people will find support" Magneto declares, arms folded across his chest. "No, no, I get it. It's very clever, your little play on words there" Namor remarks, before asking if Summers approves. Magneto pauses and tells Namor not to worry about Summers. "I can bring him around" he boasts from inside the small underwater shuttle. "Finally. An actual adult capable of getting things done around here. Tell me more" Namor replies, swimming next to the shuttle.
Later, Dr Henry McCoy a.k.a. the Beast watches as Magneto walks up the stairs on the cliffside of Utopia, leading down to the beach. "Hey, Hank!" Bobby -Iceman - Drake calls out to his good friend as he appears before him. "I think your weird gang of smart guys are having some kind of big meeting or something" Bobby remarks, before asking Hank if he is okay. "Hank? Hello? Beast? McCoy?" Bobby begins to call out when he gets no answer, as the Beast stares off into the distance, his mind fixated on the time he was held prisoner by Norman Osborn and tortured by his alternate counterpart, the Dark Beast. "McCoy. Do you feel that? That's the future stabbing you in the heart!" the Dark Beast said to him.
"Oh my stars and garters!" Hank suddenly exclaims as his mind snaps back to reality. "Hank -" Bobby begins, sitting next to Hank, who is rubbing his head. "Bobby. Hi. Sorry. Million miles away ... what's going on?" Hank asks. Bobby explains that the last of the Predator X's have been incinerated on the furnace, while the X-Club are trying to figure out how to keep the island from sinking. "Scott and Emma are doing some weird Scott-and-Emma thing nobody will talk about" Bobby adds. "And Wolverine and the spooky kids are gone again. Why, what's going on with you?" Bobby adds. "I have absolutely no idea anymore, Bobby" Hank remarks as he takes his spectacles off. "I have no idea what I'm doing here anymore" he declares, motioning up to Utopia.
Back inside Scott's mind, the leader of mutant kind falls through the Void, which asks him how it feels to prepare his entire life for just one thing, only to grow up and discover that you are just not good enough. "Give in to me, Scott. I will give you power and strength" the Void exclaims. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Scott exclaims, optic power surging behind his glasses. "I will make you the leader you've wished to be -" the Void boasts, but Scott interrupts, "SHUT UP!" he shouts, unleashing his optic blast, then falling through the Void, back into his mind proper, landing before a small black box.
"I am everything you ever wanted to be, Scott. I am everything you ever wanted" the Void exclaims. "I resent that remark!" Emma declares as she enters. Scott tells her to get away, but finding herself unable to pass a door, Emma tells Scott that she cannot get in, that he is trapped in there with the Void. "Scott, I can't help you in there -" Emma calls out. Scott replies that he is thinking in his mind that this is a room Emma cannot come into. "And if I think about it long enough and I believe it long enough, you can't come in and - if I say it I believe it" Scott calls back. "No, no, no -" Emma exclaims as a big red "X" in the door knocks her back. "Scott -" Emma calls out. "I love you. Trust me. Go home" Cyclops declares.
"No!" Emma gasps as she sits up in the chair, while, in Scott's mind, Cyclops declares ."Okay. Let's get this over with".
"Should - should I -" Betsy asks, but Emma tells her not to. "How long can we risk this?" Xavier asks. "Professor, no, please - he can do this -" Emma exclaims, begging. "If the Void gains control of Scott's mind -" Xavier begins, before Emma interrupts: "You trained him to fight monsters like this his whole life! Please let him fight!" Charles assures Emma that he loves Scott like he was his own son. "But this isn't like anything Scott has fought before. And I choose to believe in him". He puts his hand to the "X" on Scott's chest and tells Emma and Betsy to stand at the ready and pray for the best. "He's only got moments to win this thing."
"No more doubts. No more fears. No more insecurity" the Void calls out as he begins to engulf Cyclops, who holds the small black box. "No more neuroses. No more worry. I have all the answers, Scott" the Void boasts. "Never feared. Never despised. In me are all things" the Void remarks, almost covering Scott's body. Scott begins to drown. "Just say yes, Scott. Just let me in!" the Void tells him. "No" Scott replies, completely immersed in the Void.
Suddenly, there is a click, as the blackness of the Void disappears, into the box. Scott, smiles, "I dated the most powerful telepath the world has ever known for, like, years man. You know how hard it is to be a teenage boy and be with a girl that can read your mind? You're gonna have to do better than that" Scott exclaims. "Thank you, Jeannie. That's another one I owe you" Scott remarks, adjusting his tie, before leaving the room and closing the door, "You will stay here forever. If I say it, see, I believe it. You will stay here forever". Scott walks down the hallway, leaving behind the door marked with a red "X" on it. "Nobody will ever open that door. Nobody will ever open that door. Nobody will ever open that door".
Suddenly, Scott returns to the real world, "Hey, you. What'd I miss?" he asks. "Good Lord!" Xavier gasps, while Emma leaps into Scott's arms, "Hi, babe" Scott exclaims. "Scott" Emma begins, while Xavier declares that it is amazing, that Scott has completely contained the Void in some kind of psychic prison. "What can I say? I'm an expert at repression" Scott replies, before asking what he missed. Before anyone can answer, the Beast enters the room, "Scott, I understand you've just been through an ordeal, but ... but we need to talk" Hank exclaims. Scott approaches Hank, "Sure thing" he tells his old friend. "Scott -?" Emma asks, walking after him, but Xavier tells her not to. "Let them talk. You don't have to be a psychic to see what's coming next" he remarks.
And Emma, Betsy and Xavier watch as Cyclops and Hank talk in the door way - only for a moment - as Hank turns and walks away. "Hank, wait -" Scott calls out, but the founding X-Man doesn't. Scott returns to the three psychics and remarks that Beast is taking a leave of absence. �What�s next?� he asks them.
