Xavier’s…
Beast, Cyclops, Iceman and Jean have returned at the mansion and have found out that Alex and Lorna are both gone. Scott is anything but pleased. Beast asks Jean to play their video message again, thinking they might have missed something that can help them. Jean does as told, but doesn’t think there will be anything more on the message they haven’t seen the first time.
On the message, Alex greets his brother. He explains that, as the team still hasn’t returned from Warren’s home at Long Island, he and Lorna are getting tired of sitting around and doing nothing. So, they have left to locate the new mutant Cerebro tracked down in the Himalayas. He is leaving coordinates for the X-Men, in case they want to follow them. But, a confident Alex believes that he and Lorna will be back before Scott and the others return home, which isn’t the case of course. Alex closes the message.
Iceman mocks that once again Alex proves that he isn’t so bright. Scott wishes he could argue against that statement, but right now he is just too angry. Jean gets the coordinates from the message, and reads from them that Alex and Lorna left more than eight hours ago. Scott realizes that’s enough time for the Sentinel-ship to have reached the Himalayas, so they have to move! Scott knows that everyone must feel tired of all this action every day and not getting time to rest, but he wants to find Scott and Lorna before they do something even more stupid!
The Himalayas…
The Sentinel-ship has crashed landed. Lorna is some distance from the craft, face down in the snow, unconscious. As she wakes up, she remembers that she’s in the Himalayas and wonders why she ever let Alex talk her into doing this. Lorna looks around, and notices that Alex is nowhere to be found. She recalls what happened. Something hit their ship.
A short while ago…
Still in flight, Alex explains to Lorna that, according to his readout, they are practically right on top of the new mutant. Lorna looks out of the window of the ship and remarks that the Himalayas are so desolate, and jokes that the mutant must be like the abominable snowman to even survive out there. Alex doesn’t entirely agree with that, realizing that there are a lot of tribes out here who live in this ice-cold place every day.
On that moment, a large rock hits the ship from below! Lorna panics and asks Alex what hit them. Alex explains that the proximity detectors of the ship only spotted the things that hit them on the last moment. But, there was no thermal signature. Alex states that their ship couldn’t have been hit by a missile or another ship in this case.
Another rock hits the ship, and the craft begins losing altitude! Alex warns Lorna to hold onto something, as the landing will probably be rough. A few seconds later, the ship crashes in the hills.
Present time…
Lorna feels cold, and recalls that’s also the reason why she left the ship in the first place: the power of it is out. She spies a temple and heads there, hoping it will be warmer inside it – nice friendly monks inside, who’ll offer her a nice warm fire. She makes it to the temple and calls out for help, but nobody answers back. Lorna notices how dark the temple is, and it’s like the walls are just sucking the light right out of the sky! Lorna then spies a light around the corner and goes to investigate. A moment later, Lorna sees something horrible, and screams!
The Worthington Estate, Long Island…
Warren and Candy watch as the parademics take away the body of his now dead mother. An old friend, Officer Sam, apologizes to Warren for asking the many questions. Warren understands Sam has a job to do, adding that his father’s taxes go a long way for Sam to do his job. Sam can’t get over the situation: Warren’s mother died – so soon after his father died – and that Warren’s uncle Burtram is the culprit in both cases!
Burt defends that he didn’t do this alone this time. He admits that he engineered the death of his brother alone, but he had assistance in the removal of his sister-in-law. Barber finds that the hardest to believe. Sam reminds Stuart that he has been the Worthington’s family doctor for over twenty years. He wonders how he could have gotten mixed up in all this. Stuart claims that he felt ashamed, constable and disgusted for bringing a monster into the world. Sam doesn’t understand what Stuart means by that. Stuart shouts that he’s talking about Warren.
Warren hears Stuart shouting his name, and whispers to Candy that this is the moment of truth. Stuart tries to reveal that Warren is a mutant, but somehow he can’t. Burt doesn’t understand what’s wrong with his former partner and tries to do the same thing, but he can’t say it either! Candy smiles and whispers to Warren that Jean’s inhibition trick worked. The minds of both Stuart and Burt now prevent them from revealing that Warren is a member of the X-Men. The only question now is how long the inhibitors will work.
Xavier’s…
A lone man, wearing a long trench coat, makes it onto the grounds of the school. He walks towards the entrance, confident that, now, months of research will bear fruit. All the checking and rechecking of every report of the activities of his quarry point out that this is the house of the X-Men. The man admits that the X-Men’s alarm system is sophisticated, but he doesn’t have a hard time getting around them and easily enters the school through the front door!
The man meets up with the security robots, just like he expected he would do. He continues his move into the school, ignoring the robots, wanting to see if his preparations were any good. The man manages to walk passed the robots and states that he’s invisible to the security robots now, as well as to the rest of the mansion’s defenses.
He makes it to the sick bay and enters, hoping that there may be computerized records in it that may help him learn more about his prey. As the man enters the sick bay, he is spotted by Avia! The man apologizes to Avia, telling her that she’s just in the wrong place at the wrong place. He lands a quick chop to her in the neck, rendering Avia unconscious. The man realizes that Avia isn’t part of the X-Men, nor does she appear to be their prisoner. Perhaps, the man hopes, Avia will be the bargain chip he was hoping for! His plan is unfolding perfectly.
The Himalayas…
The X-Men are underway to find Havok and Lorna in their ship. Jean informs Scott that Alex’ coordinates are right below them. Scott thanks Jean for the info, and adds that he isn’t so impressed by the landscape. Hank explains that the Himalayas aren’t for nothing called the “roof of the world.” They are now removed from civilization as Terran topography permits. Iceman warns that something’s got Cerebro in a twist. Jean agrees and is alarmed by the unusual readouts. It’s like Cerebro is trying to process thousands of mutants at once! Beast states that something is interfering with the process.
On that moment, the X-Men’s ship is also hit by boulders! Scott believes the boulders must have been the size of a minivan! Beast believes that by the looks of the landscape below, the granite greeting them was not reserved for them alone. The other X-Men spot the Sentinel-ship Alex and Lorna took, as it is right below them. Scott tries to land the plane but, as he attempts it, another rock his the ship!
After the jet crashes, Scott quickly gets up and asks Jean if she’s okay. Jean’s inverted but otherwise okay. Bobby wants to know who’s throwing those rocks at them. Beast looks out of the window, and sees a huge, white furred monster ready to attack them again!
Dunfee, Illinois…
At her damaged house, Teri Martin meets up with the Professor at his room, asking if she can come in. The Professor deftly moves from his bed and into his wheelchair, informing Teri that he was about to join her and Ashley for breakfast. Teri apologizes to the Professor that the room isn’t better suited for someone with his particular needs. The Professor states that, now that his chair is repaired, he has no further complaints. He’s glad that they are at the ground floor though, because he doesn’t like stairs that much.
Teri worries about her daughter. She recalls that Xavier told her that Ashley is some kind of mutant and that he performed some kind of brain surgery on her. She wants to know if that means Ashley isn’t a mutant anymore. Teri means that, after what she has seen, she can’t say that she particularly likes her daughter being like the Professor and his X-Men. Xavier unfortunately can’t confirm that. He explains that, in most cases, a mutant’s powers only manifest themselves during puberty. But in Ashley’s case, the manifestation was somewhat premature.
Xavier admits that what he has done is temporarily sever the connections with Ashley’s conscious brain, and also the areas of her brain which govern her mutation. Teri wants to know if it was that mutation that let Ashley treat the now destroyed Sentinel like a puppet. Xavier confirms that. Ashley enters the house, explaining that the officers have almost finished cleaning up the pieces of the Sentinels. She asks the Professor how he’s doing this morning. The Professor smiles that he’s fine, and asks Ashley how she is doing.
Ashley is okay, though she has a bit of a headache. She asks her mom if they’ve got any aspirin. Hesitant, Teri admits they have and wants to ask the Professor something. Telepathically, Xavier tries to calm Teri down. He explains that Ashley’s headache is not a result of brain damage. Teri thanks the Professor for the explanation, but she would prefer it if he doesn’t use his powers to talk to her. She’s got enough to absorb as it is.
The Himalayas…
The X-Men have begun their battle against the monster. Iceman can’t believe what he’s seeing. Beast can’t really disagree with Bobby’s remark, but states that even though Bobby was still a little kid at the time, he must have seen the same news stories as the rest of the team did. Jean recognizes the monster as Yeti, a member of the First Line. Bobby finds that hard to believe, because he thought all of those heroes are dead. Scott thought so too, but apparently that isn’t the case. As Scott hits Yeti with an optic blast, Beast explains that nobody really knows what happened to the First Line. Jean confirms that, adding that the First Line heroes all disappeared somehow, a few years right before the Fantastic Four first showed up.
Scott recalls that there were all kinds of stories. Even in the orphanage, he heard about them. Jean remembers her father telling her about the First Line. Her dad also felt a terrible sense of betrayal. With the Yeti still standing, Beast kicks him in the face, adding that his parents said a similar thing to him. It was as if the First Line heroes simply deserted the rest of the world one day. Scott is glad that at least the First Line took most of their villains away with them. Beast believes that, whatever might have happened, here and now they have an entirely different confabulation of conundrums, such as why Yeti, a former super-hero, is behaving in such a hostile manner!
Meanwhile, Lorna, having fainted from the shock, wakes up in the dark temple. Lorna isn’t even sure if a day has passed or not. But it doesn’t feel like she has been out of it for that long. But then again, she is new to the super-hero life, so she doesn’t know for sure. She wonders how she would have any way of knowing how long she has been unconscious.
Lorna notices that Alex lays nearby her, unconscious as well. She calls out to Alex using his real name, suddenly remembering that she has to call him by his code-name when in the field. She thinks she’ll never get the hang of this. Lorna wakes Alex up, checking if he’s okay. Alex, having a bit of a headache, is okay but doesn’t know where they are. Lorna doesn’t know it either, but suddenly it turns out that they aren’t alone anymore!
And at that moment…
Yeti roars. Cyclops remarks that the Yeti is completely out of control and that his animal nature has overwhelmed him. Beast recalls that’s not an uncommon problem. That’s also one of the things that made the Yeti so unbeatable in the past. Jean states that they’ve got to find a way to stop the Yeti. She can read his mind, and there’s nothing even remotely human left in there. Bobby notices that, all of a sudden, smoke appears on the Yeti’s body. A few seconds later, the creature has completely turned into stone?!
Pixie, standing on a hill next to the X-Men, corrects that she hasn’t used her powers to turn the Yeti into stone. It’s just something that looks a lot like it. She apologizes that it took her and the Inhumans so long to get here. Pixie introduces herself, adding that’s what her codename used to be in the past. Jean remembers that Pixie was a member of the First Line as well. Beast asks Pixie if she knows what happened to those heroes. Medusa claims that the Inhumans know a little bit about the fate of the First Line.
Yeti was one of the first Inhumans to venture into the world outside their great refugee. It was his wild nature that drove Yeti to leave the other Inhumans, and it’s that same nature that made him so dangerous even to his teammates. There was a tragedy. Medusa doesn’t know the full details of it, except that it involves a green-skinned woman known as Rapunzel. After facing her, Yeti tried to find his way back to the Inhumans, but got lost in the impassable mountains. That was also where he met his beloved.
The X-Men make it to the temple where Lorna and Alex are in. They also find the dead body of a Skrull woman. Beast recognizes the woman as an alien, and it looks like she has been dead for quite some time. Karnak reveals that Rapunzel was a Skrull. It was in battle with an invading armada that the ones called the First Line perished. Jean wants to know if that means that all of the First Line members are dead. Pixie denies that, because both she and Yeti are still alive. She is still alive because her special nature allows her to be. Medusa adds that Yeti also managed to escape death, taking the corpse of his dead… friend with him. Yeti has remained in the temple since her death, refusing to be parted from her.
Alex asks Pixie, if the First Line saved the world, why has she never told anyone about it? Pixie doesn’t know what she would tell the world – that it was nearly invaded, and that the entire human race almost got enslaved? And that their chief line of defense is now gone, should the invaders ever chose to come back? Beast understands, though doesn’t like the fact that the memories of the brave men and women in the First Line aren’t honored as they should be. Scott realizes that, if the world knows about this, they’ll all live in fear. Medusa is glad that the X-Men understand. She adds that, sometimes, the fates can be most unkind to those who deserve it the least.
Later, both the X-Men and Alex and Lorna take both of their ships back home. Bobby and Beast really don’t like how this adventure went. Jean agrees that it does seem cruel that the First Line died and that hardly anyone seems to remember them. Scott cheers up that they remember the First Line now, and also know what really happened. But, he adds, since the world is declined to trust anything mutants have to say, it wouldn’t do much good if they revealed what really happened. He believes that like the others who are aware of the Skrull menace, they’ll just have to be vigilant.
As the team makes it back to the mansion’s hangar, Scott says that, in any case, it was most altruistic of the Inhumans to offer a refurbishment of their ships. Even they seemed to be impressed by the Sentinel technology! Lorna believes that it must have been their great refugee Cerebro detected at that close range. Jean agrees with that, explaining that Cerebro’s circuits were confused because the Inhumans aren’t mutants. They’re just something close to it. Bobby wonders who that Pixie girl was, because she said she wasn’t an Inhuman.
Lorna smiles that it was all kinds of romantic in a way. That big monster in love with a Skrull woman. He was risking his life to protect her, even though the woman had died for a very long time. Bobby thinks that it would appear there is a very small line between love and being a dope. Lorna angrily defends that this is the reason why Bobby was never able to win her heart. It’s when he talks about stuff like that.
Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice shouts “enough!” Beast recognizes the villain… it’s Kraven the Hunter! Kraven smirks that it’s a good thing the X-Men recognize him, because that will save him some time. And, time is of the essence now. He claims that he has tracked the mutants down for a reason. And, Kraven proclaims, if the X-Men don’t want to see his prisoner Avia die, he’ll help them in the most dangerous hunt of all!
