‘You son of a bitch!’ Hope shouts at Cyclops, who takes a step back from her as she thrusts her arm up at him. ‘How could you? A suicide mission?! You sent Cable on a suicide mission?!’ she exclaims. Calmly, Cyclops tells Hope that he needs her to listen to him now, and grabs her hands. ‘No -’ Hope exclaims. ‘Hope -’ Cyclops tells her. ‘No -’ Hope exclaims again, pulling her hands back, she tells Cyclops that she will never listen to him. ‘You just killed my father!’ she snaps. Cyclops pauses. ‘Hope -’ he begins once more, but Hope’s eyes flash red and she scowls as she tells Cyclops that she hates him more than anything. ‘You sent them all to die!’ she declares as she spins around and runs away. ‘Well, that went well’ Cyclops’ girlfriend, the White Queen remarks. ‘Her eyes. Did you see her eyes? They looked just like mine…’ Cyclops exclaims.
Meanwhile, outside the dome which covers much of San Francisco, ‘Watch it, folks, super heroes coming through!’ exclaims the Thing as he and the rest of the Fantastic Four - Invisible Woman, Human Torch and Mister Fantastic - approach the red sphere. ‘Jeez, ya act like ya ain’t never seen a - ahh, crap. This looks serious’ the Thing mutters. ‘You’ve got that right…this is something quite frankly disastrous’ Mr Fantastic declares as they approach the group of Avengers up ahead. ‘Oh my!’ Mr Fantastic gasps as he stretches upwards. Iron Man flies up alongside him and declares that he has never seen anything like it. ‘And I’ve seen an awful lot’ Iron Man adds.
Pensive, Mr Fantastic hopes that the X-Men are keeping the peace inside. ‘It looks like we’ve got ourselves a mystery to solve on the outside’ he points out, before someone down below calls out to him. Mr Fantastic returns to the ground, and greets Doctor Nemesis, telling him that he is pleased to finally meet him in the flesh. ‘Yip yip yip. Why haven’t we gotten to my people yet?’ Doctor Nemesis asks impatiently, standing with his X-Club teammates Kavita Rao and Madison Jeffries. ‘Hard to believe you lived all alone in the rainforest for sixty years’ Iron Man remarks, but Doctor Nemesis ignores him, and Mr Fantastic explains that he has just arrived, adding that Iron Man says that the sphere is ‘Impregnable? Yeah, that part I can confirm’ Doctor Nemesis declares.
Iron Man announces that the sphere has severed everything coming in or out of the city - water, power, the Bart Tunnels - nothing in or out. ‘Well you don’t seal off a city with a dome of impregnable energy because you want to have a nice parade. People are dying inside!’ Doctor Nemesis exclaims, before announcing that this is the situation: ‘The mutants have been targeted for extinction for decades. This is no secret. Inside the dome right now is a Sentinel from the future. This is all his doing - and he’s come here from a mutant-free future to snuff us all out in the past. Make no mistake. There’s a holocaust going on inside that dome. This is the violent end of the mutant species in toto’.
‘Not on our watch’ Bucky, the new Captain America, exclaims. ‘Here’s the plan’ he announces as he tells Mr Fantastic, Iron Man and Doctor Nemesis to figure out the dome, explain it to him, define it and find a weakness, while in the meantime, Thor and Thing need to get inside that dome. ‘You got it, boss. It’s clobberin’ time!’ the Thing exclaims.
Back on Utopia, the White Queen projects Cyclops’ thoughts to their people: ‘Here’s the latest status report’ he begins as he announces that there are five more Nimrod Sentinels to deal with, and as most of them know, the Nimrod are not from around here, and are tough to take down. He explains that just one would be disastrous, but five is…his voice trails off as he tells everyone that they have their work cut out for them, adding that from what they know, there are lots more coming. Cyclops adds that the X-Club went off to deal with the dome, and they don’t know how X-Club is doing, but as the dome is still up, they can guess. ‘Physically, nothing’s coming in or out. We’ll keep trying’ Cyclops declares.
Cyclops continues, remarking that, in terms of tactics, they are being attacked on their own turf, ‘They’re doing this to us in our own backyard’. He points out that this means they have home field advantage. ‘Take ‘em to where you live and use your surroundings like a weapon’ he explains, telling his people to stay sharp, smart, safe and alive. ‘Summers out’ he concludes, before looking out a window, and seeing a Nimrod land on Utopia. ‘Incoming’ he tells Emma, as there is a mighty boom with the Nimrod’s landing.
Fire spreads around the Nimrod, while Cyclops and Emma begin tapping into the computers. Cyclops announces that he is shutting down levels three, four and five. ‘That’s the mess, the residences, the food and fresh water supplies’ the White Queen points out. ‘Everything but ops, sick bay and control. Yeah. And this’ll cut the power to everything but sick bay’ Cyclops adds. ‘Blow the bastard to hell and back, darling’ Emma exclaims, and an instant later, a massive explosion resonates throughout Utopia.
In Chinatown, a woman races down battle-ravaged street, holding her baby. Nearby, someone lunges at one of the Nimrod, while Surge is uncontrollably propelled forward. ‘Oh God, oh God’ she mutters, before calling for help. ‘Seriously, help!’ she calls out as the Nimrod gets up and looks at her - before it is suddenly electrocuted. ‘I can’t make it rain inside the dome. Still, it’s lightning that does the work’ Storm declares as she hovers overhead.
Nearby, Psylocke is on one of the Nimrod’s backs as it flies alongside a skyscraper. Iceman slides nearby on an ice-sled, ‘C’mon c’mon c’mon, Betsy!’ he exclaims to Psylocke, who leaps from the Nimrod, just before Iceman engulfs it in an iceberg, causing it to fall to the ground below, where Fantomex is waiting. The mercenary quotes “I’m not trapped in here with you…you’re trapped in here with me”, and laughs, ‘That film was stupid’ he exclaims as he unleashes gunfire upon the ice-covered Nimrod.
Suddenly, Namor contacts everyone, informing them that there is trouble at the Port of Oakland. He bursts up out of the water and punches one Nirmod, while another grabs his side. The Sub-Mariner announces that he is going to need help, because five more Nimrod have just arrived from somewhere.
In the future, Wolverine, Cable, Archangel, Cypher, Domino and X-23 look up at the skyscraper covered city - where two enormous Sentinel producing facilities are situated even higher up, and countless Sentinels stand ready. ‘Ah, come on. I’ve blown up bigger things than this’ Cable boasts. Suddenly, Cypher calls out to Wolverine, getting his and the others attention, they all turn to a brick wall, where photos of over a hundred mutants are plastered to the wall, each with “Slain” written across them. ‘Oh my God. They’ve killed us all!’ Archangel gasps, before he begins to tear up the poster. ‘They’ve killed us all!’ he exclaims again.
Wolverine tells his friend to keep it down and keep it together. ‘How can you -’ Archangel begins, gut Cable tells Archangel that if he keeps screaming, the Sentinels are going to be on them. ‘Who cares? Don’t you understand? Don’t you know what this world means?’ someone asks. X-23 stands beside the image of her, with “slain” written across it and exclaims that it means they have to kill them all. ‘Every single one of them. And then get back to the past to stop it all from happening again’.
Wolverine points out that the good news is, if they are all dead, then the Sentinels don’t have any idea how to fight them. Suddenly, Domino grabs Cypher. ‘Hey -’ Cypher exclaims, while domino tells him to ‘Look out!’ and everyone looks up, as three very large robots appear. ‘Attention, trespassers! Your presence in this zone is expressly forbidden! Extreme prejudice is to be exercised in -’ someone piloting one of the robots begins, before checking his monitors, which inform him that the trespassers are in fact mutants. ‘MUTANTS!’ he shouts.
Wolverine growls and lunges at the first robot, which begins firing at them. ‘So much for the element of surprise’ Wolverine exclaims as he attacks the pilot, while telling the others to shut them down before they can call for back up. ‘Mine is down!’ X-23 announces, while Archangel slices his way through the other, announcing that they got lucky. Cypher climbs in and begins reading the robots, announcing that they are sending all of the heavy duty models into the past, five at a time. ‘All right. Then here’s the plan. We kill our way from here to there. We kill our way inside. And we don’t come out until the future is razed and the past is saved. No matter what’ Cable announces. Everyone looks at him, before Wolverine exclaims ‘Let’s go!’, and the heroes leap into action.
On Utopia, Rogue and Professor Xavier approach Cyclops. ‘I never wanted this for you. All the things I prepared you for p all the worst-case scenarios I could conceive - I never imagined they’d all happen at once. And that you’d have to deal with them as such’ Xavier declares. ‘I know’ Cyclops tells him. ‘What can I do?’ Xavier asks. Cyclops tells him that he needs him to work with Legion. Xavier is surprised by this request and points out Legion is an omega-level mutant schizophrenic that has time and time again tried to hurt them.
‘And he’s your son and you love him. You can keep him in line’ Cyclops replies, admitting to Rogue that Hope hates him, not that he blames her, but she won’t listen to him. ’She trusts you. You can keep her safe and Utopia is still the safest place. Keep her here. Protect her’ Cyclops exclaims. ‘Cross my heart’ rogue replies, touching her chest. Cyclops thanks Rogue and the Professor, before announcing ‘This is all hands on deck. The ship’s going down’.
Back on the other side of the sphere, the Thing examines his blistered hands, from all the punching he has been doing, before asking Thor to quit the racket he is making. ‘One…once more…’ the weary Thor declares, clearly exhausted. ‘Thor! That’s enough!’ Mr Fantastic calls out, informing Thor that the attack only depleted the sphere by fifteen percent. ‘You’re killing yourself for nothing’ he exclaims. ‘Dammit’ Buck mutters, while Iron Man exclaims ‘That’s it. That’s all we’ve got. Between my repulsors, Thing’s fists and Thor’s hammer…we’re at least a day away from getting inside!’
‘Not good enough’ Doctor Nemesis declares. ‘Every man, woman and child inside that dome…human and mutant alike…everyone in the dome will be dead in another few hours. And mutantkind will be extinct!’….
