Ten hours ago:
X-23, Armor, Mercury and Pixie herself are all on Pixie’s scooter. She speaks her teleportation spell and they arrive in front of a somewhat derelict looking building. She thought Megan said this was going to be fun, Mercury states critically, wereas Hisako demands to know where the hell they are. Megan assures them this is going to be fun. It’s a surprise! They will love it. She was surprised when she got the invite.
While X-23 and Armor bicker over whether she repeated her question or varied it, Megan continues to gush how super this is going to be. They are all invited to an exclusive private Dazzler show. At least she was. They’ll just have to suck it up and be her posse. Problem, Mercury warns. No problem, Pixie insists. It doesn’t have to be “posse.” How about “crew” or “gang” or “marching band?”
“Oh,” she states when she realizes Mercury was referring to the man holding a pipe in front of them. He orders them to give him their money. She’s got a better idea, X-23 replies threateningly. She too, Pixie pipes up, before Laura can do anything and uses pixie dust on the man.
She really wishes Megan wouldn’t throw that stuff around like confetti, Armor complains after the man passes out. It only produces nice results, Megan informs her. She thinks. She never tried it out herself.
This is the place, Megan tells them. They walk inside the dimly lit club. The invite was really cool, Megan tells the others. No address, just GPS-coordinates. She just punched in the numbers. She has trouble pushing the right buttons on a vending machine, Armor snorts.
Critically looking at the other guests, Cessily remarks she always wondered which club only let in really ugly people. She always thought it would be in Oakland, X-23 adds. They had better not be in Oakland, she tells Megan threateningly.
One man with a barely human face hisses, it’s them. Another tells him to fix his face (which the other man does). The second man adds he’s followed that little girl around for month. Scrounging up after her. Blood and pus, bile and bone. Sparkle and magic. And he can’t wait to shove it all back down her throat so far that she’ll be able to polish her shoes with her own tongue!
Inside the disco, it’s dark and so loud the girls can barely hear each other. When they look up, they see artists hanging from the rafters performing. Pixie is enthusiastic and believes it smells like heaven.
Now:
A dream has come true for Megan, as she has been elected Prom Queen. She doesn’t notice that most of her fellow students look decidedly inhuman. She apologizes for her freakout and for calling them all those horrible names. It was before she knew she had wings but she’s okay now. It’s the new “normal,” so thanks for voting for her.
However, she is unhappy that her “so-called” friends aren’t enjoying themselves. She turns to the other girls who have been quiet. They are her friends, Laura points out. Her friends wouldn’t be so rigid, Megan spits back. Her friends would just be happy to go along with whatever fun idea popped into her head. Her friends would want to see her happy, and she is happy. Get it?
From not far away, the demons watch them. The nurse tells Saturnine she can keep feeding the little girl her own magic but she’s starting to restructure the illusion herself. She’s filling in gaps. She fears it’s coming apart before its time. Saturnine tells her to watch. Pixie ran towards her mutant deformity with open arms. As long as she was adored, as long as she felt she’s beloved. She takes to it like a match to gasoline. She is adaptable; she comes from a world where everyone is told they are special. Where everyone has the right to be happy. Lies!
The nurse still believes she fights too hard but Saturnine is convinced there is a dark place in Gwynn’s soul and he is going to pry it open if it kills her! He’s been without a master for so long. And soon he will have no need of one…
In Utopia, the White Queen sighs in her office, telling the students to come in. Anole, Rockslide and Blindfold nervously do as told. Impatiently, Emma demands to know what’s going on and Anole explains that they cannot find Pixie, X-23, Mercury and Armor. They’ve gone missing or something. Emma explains she is not interested in policing their every move. She doesn’t tell them everything and, frankly, expects the same courtesy. So, unless they’ve got something more concrete…
They’ve found Blindfold hiding in the girls’ bathroom, talking about trouble, Rockslide points out. Well, that makes a world of difference, Emma remarks sarcastically.
That moment, Nightcrawler teleports in and asks if Emma knows Pixie’s mother is here. No, she isn’t, Emma replies. Why would she be? And, to be honest, she thought they found Megan Gwynn under a cabbage. Kurt explains that he and Psylocke just had an unusual interview with Mrs. Gwynn. She believes her daughter is lost. Literally or metaphorically? Emma quips. Why does everyone keep saying that, he sighs. How can one be expected to resist? Emma points out.
They did not! Blindfold blurts out. They will not resist. Not a one of them. Not one of them! He told them she knew something, Santo remarks. He’s a stone-cold genius, Anole quips. A precog who knows things.
Emma puts an arm around Ruth’s shoulder, asking if there is something she would like to share with the class. How bad could it be? This isn’t high school. And she doesn’t have all day.
Elsewhere, Megan accuses her friends of not making an effort to fit in. They all really look like a bunch of freaks. She addresses Cessily, remarking she feels she isn’t showing her true colors. She points at a demon, stating he isn’t ashamed of what he is. Why is she?
Cessily retorts she doesn’t know what Megan is talking about. Why is she so mean? Stop it! Ruth moans. She will not stop, Megan shouts, and she is not being mean. She is getting impatient. She sees she is going to have to convince them individually, so she manifests her souldagger. She picks Ruth first. She stabs Ruth with the souldagger.
In the real world, Blindfold sinks to her knees repeatedly shouting ‘trouble’. Emma asks how long the girls are probably gone. Since last night. Well, that’s not long, Emma muses. How far could they get? Literally or metaphorically? Kurt suggests. Emma chides him to be serious. He is, Kurt insists. With a day off, a recipe for Sauerkraut and a box of rabbits those girls could go all the way to the White House!
“Private Party!” Ruth announces, and they said “yes please yes please yes please.” But she said “no, no thank you, I do not like dancing.” Razzle Dazzler. They went to see Dazzler? Emma asks. They went into the city? Yes, maybe, the girl replies. Of all the stupid idiotic wastes of time, Emma sighs. She wants to see their rooms. Now.
Elsewhere, X-23 grabs Pixie’s wrist and orders her to stop. She can’t, Megan replies. Laura turns away and begins hitting the demons.
On Utopia, Emma, Psylocke, Kurt, Anole and Rockslide search the room Pixie, Armor and X-23 share. Is everyone up to date with their tetanus shots? Emma announces disgusted. Rockslide gets drawn to underwear drawers, before Psylocke chides him. However, Santo also finds something useful: An invitation to a Dazzler show. “Thank God,” Emma announces and asks Kurt if they permanently displaced Mother Gwyn.
Said mother Gwynn is looking for a certain house, all the while complaining about her daughter and that she left her family and brains. She sighs their women are easily won as wives, allies, weapons and trophies. But there is a single reason for it, because they allow it to be so. She enters a mansion. Until the moment they do not.
The daughters have come home, it seems, she remarks and enters the house. In the grand stairway, the portraits of a dark haired woman and a blonde hang. Suddenly, there is a crashing noise and said two women come rolling down, while trying to scratch each other’s eyes out; the sisters Regan and Martinique, daughters of the original Mastermind.
Mrs. Gwynn greets them and remarks it seems they have been making their father proud. Protecting the Wyngade fortune. Putting the ‘mine’ back in Mastermind…
What does she know of their father? Regan asks. A lot of things, she replies, not the least of which is that it is high time they stopped acting like the babies of the family. They have been usurped.
Elsewhere, Pixie is slumbering in the hands of a huge demon…
