The corporate headquarters of Kilgore Arms, the CEO’s penthouse: “Pretend I’m the thing you hate most in the world!” Sabretooth announces sneering. “I’m Wolverine’s school and you wanna shut me down for good. Do your worst, little Hellfire King!” he goads twelve year old Kade Kilgore, current Black King of the Hellfire Club, who is armed with a big knife… which he swings at Sabretooth.
He’s lashing at his limbs, Sabretooth criticizes. That’ll never get it done. Kade tries again. Groin or the head is better Sabes agrees. But nobody’s got a harder head than Wolverine. Try again!
Screaming in rage, Kade attacks. The heart, Sabretooth commends him. Now they are talking…
Meanwhile, at the Jean Grey School: Wolverine’s current state puzzles both him and the Beast. His bones are adamantium-laced and couldn’t be broken, yet now they are mangled and Wolverine sits in a wheelchair.
Beast suggests calling Magneto. They are not asking Scott’s people for help! Wolverine stresses. Beast fears this means it will be a very painstaking process. Wolverine’s alien attackers must have used some form of matter transmutation ray. It weakened the heavy atomic structure of his usually unbreakable, unbendable adamantium bones, making them, well, breakable. The effects were temporary and the metal has once against hardened to its indestructible state. He will need to recreate the transmutation effect and surgically repair each of the deformations. Now, where did he leave the blowtorch? he mutters.
So he’s got one of these matter ray thingamajigs just lying around? Logan asks. They are highly illegal in every part of the globe, Hank lectures him. Of course he has one. Or at least he used to. Damn those Bamfs! He promises he’ll find it and fix this. Logan suggests if he gets someone to wheel him back to that alien casino, he’ll bring back the same damn one they used on him. And the hand of whoever holding it. Hank reminds him those aren’t the old days. They are schoolteachers now. For once, they should try solving their problems without violence.
Thirty five minutes from now:
Dressed in a space suit, Beast hits someone, shouting: “die, you miserable pus sac!”
Now:
Pulling the knife out of his chest, Sabretooth admits that Kade has the instincts of a killer. Don’t matter who he’s trying to kill. The same principle applies. Hacking something all to pieces, while it may be good for a laugh can take just about forever. Easiest way to kill is go straight for the heart. Everything’s got a heart, even a school. What do they know about that heart?
Dr, Henry Phillip McCoy, Kade replies, aka Beast Ph.D. in biophysics, Blue and furry. Known affiliation…
Back at the Jean Grey School, Beast is leaving to visit his girlfriend, Commander Abigail Brand, at the Peak in Earth orbit.
Sabretooth explains the first rule of fighting X-Men: Drag them down to your level. They all like to prance around like their crap don’t stink. You gotta remind them they ain’t gods or saints… nothing of the sort. Just ‘cause they got wings that don’t make them angels. They can bleed and even be broken. Even a smarty art fancy pants like Dr. Henry Phillip McCoy, Ph.D. Now read that part again about “known affiliations…”
The Peak, orbital headquarters of SWORD. Current director: Abigail Brand, girlfriend of one Dr. Henry McCoy Ph.D.
Henry’s shuttle is close by and he requests permission to dock. This is an emergency. He is in desperate need of a matter transmuter. Abigail? he ask when no response comes. It’s her blue honeybear. Anyone?
Suddenly, he notices several lifeless figures in spacesuits floating in space, most of them dead, courtesy of Sabretooth, who is holding Abigail Brand hostage. It ain’t true what they say in the movie. They are in space but he can still hear her screaming…
At the Jean Grey School, Quentin tells Angel he knows where he is going. Good, because he does not, Angel replies. Reading his mind makes him want to kill himself, Quentin continues. How does he stand having thoughts so incessantly… decent?
Angel asks Quentin and the others who have accompanied him – Idie Okonkwo, Broo, Genesis, Kid Gladiator and his bodyguard Warbird – not to stop him. He is on a mission from God. For what he’s planning, he’s gonna need to skip class, steal a spaceship and likely spark an intergalactic incident, Quentin recounts. Who wants to stop him? He wants in!
Broo nervously points out that Quentin didn’t say this off-campus excursion was to be unsupervised. What he did say to him, was “go away and die, alien pogue” Quentin reminds him. Yes, but he says that to him constantly, so he had assumed it was a sort of involuntary verbal tic, Broo replies.
Warbird warns Kid Gladiator off but he protests he hasn’t punched anyone in almost three whole days. Would she have him waste away until he becomes an utterly worthless weakling like this Genesis guy?
Idie asks Angel if God really talks to him. Could he perhaps speak to him on her behalf?
Soon, Logan wheels into the classroom, apologizing. His claws popped by accident and shredded his tires. He finds nobody there, the class is already gone.
In Earth orbit, Sabretooth leers at Hank, telling him to come back in a few minutes. He ain’t done killing his girlfriend yet. Also dressed in a spacesuit, Beast comes attacking, pushing him against the station while Brand is left floating.
Inside the airlock, Beast shouts this is craven - even for him! Talk to his buddy Logan, Sabretooth replies. Killing gal-pals is kinda his thing. Beasts snarls and threatens to tear him a new aperture. Now he’s speaking his language!
Where are they headed again? Idie asks nervously. To the very edge of heaven, where either their faith will be rewarded or their lives made utterly meaningless, Angel explains. Quentin remarks it’s a lot cooler than he makes it sound. Hang left at the asteroid!
Flashback to yesterday:
Angel grabs Wolverine and takes him up in the air. Does he believe in miracles? he asks. No, he doesn’t! Put him down! Logan roars. He may change his mind after this, Angel announces. He has known the healing touch of the Angel. Be whole again! Rise up and walk! he commands and drops him. Logan lands hard. Nothing has changed.
Angel is confused. His faith must not have been strong enough. Logan explains he cannot help him because he is no angel. He is a mutant. Warren Worthington. It’s time he accepted who he really is.
The present:
The kids arrive on Planet Sin.
in Earth orbit:
There’s darkness in him, Sabretooth goads, though he tries his damnedest to tamper it down. Using big word to remind everybody how smart he is. He runs from that darkness and that holds him back.
He hits and kicks Beast, adding he is smarter than Wolverine. Stronger too, and deep down he is as much an animal, if not more. He could put him to shame as a fighter if he wanted to. But then he is too much heart and not enough guts. Sabretooth cuts him.
He could keep this up all day, but he better get back to what he was doing before he was so rudely interrupted. It’s Abigail, right? Feisty broad. Bet it’ll take him a good hour to finish her off. Beast should have a good ringside seat. He puts on his helmet and tells Beast to give his best to the runt.
Panicked, Hank tries to find a spacesuit that isn’t destroyed, but in vain.
Planet Sin, the Plandanium Nugget Casino:
The kids are raising hell. Kid Gladiator protests there is no creature in here actually worthy battling a prince of the Shi’ar. He turns to a guard, asking where they jeep their warriors. One of the guards slams him.
Genesis protests that where he comes from people who hit children are always the bad guys. And where is it he comes from and is everyone there as ugly as him? the guard asks. Don’t you ever say bad things about Kansas! Evan cries furiously and fires at him with his eye blasts. Impressed, Kid Gladiator admits suddenly he would very much like to go to Kansas. Him too, Evan agrees and turns to Angel, who kicks another guard in the face.
Angel doesn’t know who he is, Evan states questioningly. That’s what they are trying to figure out, right? Angel replies he knows who he is. It’s everyone else who doesn’t believe him. Helping him, Evan assures him he believes. Angel asks for his name, then admits he feels like he should know more about him but he has no memory of his previous life. That part of him is dead. Evan replies he is still figuring out who he is as well. He knows who people tell him he is. But he never quite believes them. Maybe they can find out together, Angel suggests. Evan likes that.
In Earth orbit, Brand uses the remnant of her boost to try and reach a gun floating in space. She almost makes it when Sabretooth grabs her, ready to hurt her some more.
Beast jumps out of the airlock without his helmet and tackles Sabretooth, before getting back inside the station. Brand, in the meantime, has reached the gun and shoots Sabretooth pointblank several times. He floats away.
At the Jean Grey Institute, the kids are welcomed by Wolverine, who threatens them with detention for the rest of their lives. Angel takes the blame and tells him all he wants is for him to believe. In him. He offers the device. In all of them. They are the miracles.
Earth orbit:
In the station, Brand finds the wounded Beast who asks if she forgot to pay her heating bill. It’s rather cold. She orders him not to make her laugh She’s keeping his guts in! “You stupid blue ball of awesome.”
At the secret headquarters of the Hellfire Club, Kade Kilgore angrily wonders if this nauseous feeling is what failure feels like. How do normal people stand it? He has now failed to do something he set his mind to exactly twice in his entire life. Both times thanks to the X-Men. He promises there will not be a third.
Any sign of the idiot brute who steered them down this path? the Baron Katzenelbogen asks. Manuel replies his people are tracking Sabretooth. He was last seen falling towards the moon.
Kade gives orders to have him brought in. The Hellfire Club may yet need his services. Though their objective has changed. Sabretooth was right about stabbing for the heart. But his aim was off by a mile. Manuel explains to the others he owns multiple establishments on a world called Planet Sin. There was an incident there today… He shows them images from the security cameras depicting the student of the Jean Grey School. This is the heart they aim for, Kade explains. The only question is which one do they stab first?
