The Peak, orbit:
Sydren informs Commander Brand that he’s found Unit in Canada. He wants to send the coordinates to both X-Men and Avengers. Just the X-Men, Brand orders.
In Argentina, several X-Men and Avengers are fighting a dragon when Cyclops is informed the next target is in Canada. Danger points out a problem. That’s where Hope went.
Cyclops gives immediate order for the Extinction team to exit. He explains to Captain America there is a crisis with Hope. They have to go. There is a crisis here, Cap retorts. There are other X-Men teams! None at their level, Cyclops insists. There’s no other option.
He orders Magik to extract them and Colossus to take point on pacification. Brand tries to warn him not to dive in. He has to be briefed in order to handle Unit. Cyclops retorts he dislikes diving in unprepared. But this is Hope and this Unit must have lured her there. If he’s that dangerous, they can’t afford the delay!
In Canada, Hope stands frozen in front of Unit when Magik teleports in and pushes Hope into another teleportation disk away to safety. The rest of the Extinction team appears and Colossus runs at Unit, who observes he’s unstoppable. He orders him to alter his trajectory by 45 degrees and strike the ground in 0.14 seconds. Give him a shockwave, please. With his course subtly altered, Colossus runs into Namor and Cyclops instead, flattening them.
Next, he orders Magneto to put Colossus into orbit. He fires an energy blast at Magneto, apologizing, but he should consider this a compliment. He is the most dangerous one.
Attacking with lightning, Storm remarks that shows how little he knows. She orders him to stop the violence. Unit scoffs that they started it and orders Storm to lose fine control. The weather turns against her and she lands far away.
Figuring that Unit must be susceptible to mind control, Emma tries telepathy against him. He informs her that she got his fake outer mind. She has to excavate a little deeper to get to the real him. He derides psychics: bad at understanding mind control that isn’t based on telepathy. He considers it arrogant.
Getting up again, Namor informs him that arrogance is Namor’s specialty. Not quite calibrated for Atlantians yet, Unit releases a generalized pheromone barrage at Emma and Namor. Overwhelmed by lust, the two immediately tear at each other’s clothes. Unit muses it doesn’t’ usually work that well. She is meant to be with him, isn’t she? he smirks at Cyclops.
Cyclops blasts Unit through a forest. Ouch! Unit admits, then orders him to keep his eyes shut. Disappointed, he announces he was looking forward to the great mutant leader Scott Summers. But attacking a diplomat… Only thugs like the ancient Spartans or the Tutoloid Reavers of the lost Meta Nebula would consider such an unforgivable breach of protocol!
When Cyclops begins to utter an insult, Unit cuts him off. That’s a strange way to apologize! He orders him on his knees, lecturing he cannot stand impoliteness.
Very well, comes Danger’s voice from above, sorry! She lands on him and throws him to the ground, after which she holds him fast in a forcefield.
That moment, Magik returns with Hope, who protests Unit wasn’t doing anything. Her team attacked him and he put them to sleep. Then they just talked. He was nice!
Unit agrees to the first part. Since he was free for a while, he wanted to meet some mutants. All he’s done is defend himself. And the second part is particularly kind. He thanks Hope.
Magik sent word to Danger about what Hope said. But Danger considered it irrelevant. It is still an escaped prisoner. It needed to be pacified before the area was safe. Well, it is certainly pacified now, Unit points out and stresses he is not an escaped prisoner but a prisoner whose cell unfortunately disintegrated around him. He’d be grateful if they could lock him up safely.
Cyclops orders Magneto to get Colossus back from orbit and for Magik to teleport them back to the Avengers.
The Avengers have already finished the dragon. Captain America addresses Cyclops, telling him he has forged something incredible. He should be proud. Give him the “but,” Cyclops retorts. He said his number one priority was saving the world, Cap continues. Today he’s shown it isn’t. Magik protests that’s unfair, but Cyclops cuts her off, telling her to leave it. Glaring at Cap, he orders her to take them home.
On Utopia, he tells them to get some rest. Emma tries to apologize about what happened between her and Namor. He understands lust, Scott replies. She didn’t choose that. He’s okay with it. She’d prefer it if he weren’t, she replies.
Psylocke interrupts them. Agent Brand is here in person. Brand erects a forcefield around herself and Scott to ensure privacy. She needs a favor. They have no prison now. It’s going to be months until SWORD has got something suitable to hold the maximum security inmates. They’ve managed to borrow facilities from other agencies. SHIELD, the Raft, whatever. But she has a problem… Unit. She shouldn’t have him. Several alien extradition treaties say she should hand him over. But he is just too useful.
What is it? Scott asks. Imagine a nuke that talks planets to death, she replies. He’s a leftover weapon from a precursor race that tried to bring peace across the universe. He sees it as his mission to finish the job, no matter what the cost. He’s a pleasant, polite monster. But he solves problems. She has problems to solve. As long as they keep him safely locked up, she can use him.
She knows he’s got the most secure privately held prison on Earth. If he could keep him—Scott points out he doesn’t owe her anything. Why should he? Brand shoots back that, when he was securing Utopia, he was running a secret assassination squad. What did her boyfriend tell her? Scott asks. Nothing, she replies. But Beast leaving Scott’s X-Men? How tense he get when he talks about Cyclops? He’s furious that he can’t talk about something. She went through their satellite feed with a fine-tooth comb. He should consider himself lucky that SHIELD has been in such a mess for the last few years, or he’d be in prison by now.
Cylops accuses her of blackmail. Brand corrects him. She is letting them mutually blackmail each other. This is the closest she comes to trusting someone. They know each other’s dark secrets… and help each other keep them. They shake hands.
After she leaves, Colossus wants to talk with Scott about his sister’s prison. Cyclops cuts him off: he can’t risk letting Illyana out. He misunderstands, Peter replies.
And so, later Colossus has joined Illyana in the cell. Illyana explains that Peter is in control mostly but, when it is in control, he is fearful. Glaring at Cyclops, Colossus points out his sister is dangerous and so imprisoned until she is needed. He is more dangerous. He should be imprisoned too. It is for the best, da?
In another part of the brig, Unit calls for the Warden and tells her to please inform Hope he is ready to see her. Give her private access to his cell and delete all records of this – both in the security system and her own memories.
Stop wasting her time, Danger replies surly. Ahhem, Unit tuts reprovingly and raises his finger. He did say “please.” Danger freezes and is forced to kneel as he explains he is the sole remaining artefact of a species with almost godlike science that came within inches of uniting the universe into an empire of peace. Conversely, she is a gymnasium with pretensions. He compromised all her systems within seconds of meeting her. Now scurry along, he orders, there is no time to waste.
Hope soon comes to visit. He said he could tell her about the Phoenix and help her? she asks hopefully. Unit agrees. In what little time remains, he believes they can help each other enormously. They’ve got lots to talk about…
