Banshee is flying Emma to Everett’s old school, when Emma senses that the girls have found him and he must land immediatly. Sean dosent listen so she seizes his mind and makes them land. Angry, Sean asks whats got into her - they have to reach Synch before he goes over the edge. Emma tells him that Husk, M and Jubilee are already fighting him, but he has all their powers at his disposal and he has to fight the malevolent influence of Emplate. Had they flown any closer, Everett would have gotten their powers too. If the girls are going to survive this - they have to do it alone.
Inside the school, Synch is attacking the girls with Jubilee’s powers while trying to control Emplate’s urges to kill them. Husk sheds into a shiny metallic form and takes the brunt of Synch’s attacks. She tells him that he has to fight the urges, then Jubilee tells him that he cant let Emplate win. They are his family and friends - he cant kill them. Synch destroys a wall and escapes. Husk thinks this is a good thing as it shows they are wearing him down and he’s fighting Emplate’s influence. As they start to follow him, Jubilee tells them she will stay behind with Giovanni so Everett will lose her powers, then Husk can attack him as he cant really duplicate her powers and M can take him out. The others are quite impressed with the simpleness and efficiency of Jubilee‘s plan.
Back in Massachussetts, Chamber is getting worse after his brief Onslaught experience, and Skin helps him cover his face up for the journey to The Xavier Institute. If Professor X cant help him remember who Onslaught is, no one can. As they get ready to leave, a man knocks on the door telling Skin he’s come about the job. Skin tells him he’s hired and to come back tomorrow as he hasn’t got time for pleasantries. Penance curiously watches as the man leaves.
Synch manages to find some space alone in the school boiler room and tries to fight the impulses, but cant. He needs to sup on someone, he needs to kill them. He starts to contemplate suicide, so no one will get hurt. Husk finds him and tells him if he’s thinking of throwing himself into the furnace - she’ll stop him. They can find a way out of this. Synch begins to repent, but Emplate’s will resurfaces and he savagely attacks Paige. Hearing the explosion in the boiler room, Jubilee races to help, but Giovanni stops her, telling her that she was right and if she battles Everett he will only become more powerful. Back in the boiler room, Husk is still not defeated and attacks Synch, but he grabs her hair and accidentally rips off her Metallic form. Shocked, as she needs time and concentration between each ‘husking’, Paige stands there, half transparent and scared over what Everett has done to her. He then lunges for her again, but she flips out and hits him over and over again with her steel hard fists and begs him to stay down as she doesn‘t want to kill him. She then screams in agony as her body begins to give up after all the stress of two huskings in such a short peroid and collapses.
Outside, Emma fells her pain too and is thrown across the roof. She tells Banshee that Paige is alot braver than she thought, and Banshee tells her they’d better hurry up as he can see police cars racing to the school.
Inside, Synch leans over Paige and gets ready to sup, but he is fighting the urges. M appears and he tells her she shouldn’t have come.Not after what her brother did to him. She tells him to sync into her and tap into her abilities. He tells her he already has, but M tells him that that is just an after effect of her mutant powers. She tells him to try again, to push himself and learn why her brother could never feast on her genetic marrow. He does - he delves deeper into M and suddenly, shockingly, he learns her terrifying secret. Synch screams in pain and Emplate’s influence rushes out from him.
On the roof, Emma tells Sean its over as M lands next to them with the unconcious Husk and the exhausted and confused Synch. Jubilee races to the roof and tells them they must leave now as Giovanni is putting the police off their trail. Synch begins to feel sorry for himself, but Sean and Jubilee tell him that none of it was his fault. Emma reminds them it‘s not Everett they should be concerned with, but M and her secrets.
Meanwhile, Skin is speeding down a country lane, trying to get Chamber to the X-Men as he is getting worse when the X-Cutioner suddenly appears in the road, causing their car to skid off and crash. Climbing free of the wreakage, he informs Skin that he is here to kill him, for the murder of Angelo Espinosa !
