Outside the FBI field office, Brooklyn:
Protesters still demand Storm’s freedom and believe she is being set up. Inside the building, Agent Robertson and her team are working clues. Robertson tells her superiors she found something. A non-profit called “Concerned Citizens” illegally reimbursed hundreds of people for contributing to the Senator’s reelection campaign. She is reminded that they are hunting Storm, not investigating the Senator. Undeterred, Robertson continues that they’ve traced “Concerned Citizens” back to Eaglestar, Davis Harmon’s arms company. The one, Storm said, attacked the plane. But the Senator claimed Storm attacked the plane.
She is asked what her point is. Robertson replies she thinks Storm was telling the truth. Eaglestar set her up and the Senator helped. They need to pull back the team. She is told Storm’s gone a little far for that now.
Louisiana:
With a hurricane, Storm has attacked the Senator’s mansion, abducted him and is now facing FBI helicopters. She is ordered to release the Senator and surrender.
The frightened Senator pleads that he won’t press charges. She orders him to take a deep breath. She whirls him up after her in the hurricane, avoiding the tear gas they are using.
She and the Senator fly away at top speed. When he begs her not to kill him, she retorts that she is trying to keep him alive. He offers to tell her where Davis Harmon is. Just put him down! She is surprised but whatever works.
Soon, she has reached San Francisco, where people on the Golden Gate Bridge recognize her. Storm muses she loved this place. It was the last place it seemed everything was possible. The X-Men used to live in the bay, a shining place they called Utopia. And then they killed it, fighting among themselves.
Stor creates an air bubble around her as she dives into the ocean. The Senator said Harmon built his Eaglestar’s weapon division by combing through battlefields year after year, stealing data and tech from the dead. He must have been so happy when he heard about their war. She supposes it’s partly their fault, letting all those scraps of Shi’ar tech and X-Club gadgets fall into the sea, but still he makes her sick. Hiding in their shadow like a giant cockroach.
She finds an undersea transport and Harmon Davis in it. She reminds him he saw her fighting Gah-ran. He knows how strong she is. So let’s not make this a big production. Excellent points, he agrees with a grin, but he has to try, doesn’t he? A torpedo is fired at her.
Storm uses her winds as an airlift to lift his vessel out of the water into the sight of the people on the bridge. A cop tries to evacuate the bridge.
Storm tells Harmon it’s over. Not quite! he snaps, firing at her from his cyborg body. Storm hits him with a lightning bolt and asks why he endangered hundreds of people to frame her. He snarls in rage. She brings him down with wind blasts and repeats her question. With a cry of rage, he attacks and is again stopped by lightning. It’s just business, he admits and presses a button on his ship. The screen show images from San Marco and Storm and Gah-ran’s fight.
When Storm overthrew the paramilitaries in San Marco, she destroyed a seventy-three million dollar annual revenue stream. And then she blew into Vegas, completely restructuring the Four Clans. But Kuva and he had arrangements. When Yukio took over, everything shifted. He’s going to lose fourteen percent net by the end of the quarter. All this over fourteen percent? she asks disgusted.
She’s been running, trying to change the world. That’s cool. He’s sure it makes her feel good, particularly when she’s applauded by the losers she keeps saving, but she doesn’t understand how the rest of them feel. Most people he knows like the world just the way it is. You tamper with it and destroy everything they’ve built. Consequences, Ms. Munroe. She brought it on herself.
Is he done? she asks calmly. He thinks that should do it, he replies and quickly initiates a self-destruct sequence. The vessel explodes but Storm takes him away. Trying to kill himself? she asks. He is almost as hard to kill as she, Harmon points out. It’s them he’s aiming for. The shockwave created by the detonation is about to hit the bridge and the innocent bystanders on it.
She is too late, he gloats. This isn’t like Santo Marcos. She can’t get ahead of the wave. They’re all going to die and the headline will read “Storm kills thousands.” And he can get back to work in peace.
She orders him to shut up. She is working. She creates a funnel, parting the ozone layer and magnetic fields. A rainbow shines as the water is dispersed and the people laugh in relief.
Davis Harmon is brought to the federal contentment center in Brooklyn. Agent Robertson informs Storm they got a warrant to take his cybernetic memories. Lots of good stuff there. His criminal associates are being rounded up across the country. The Senator lawyered up and flew to Aruba, but they’ll get him. And Storm is free to go. When Storm expresses her surprise, the agent tells her no one in the agency can find any video of anything illegal Storm did.
She smiles. Storm was right about her the other day. She trained twenty years so she could get this job and make a difference. She guesses today is one of the days differences get made.
Storm agrees, but notes it’s a dangerous way to live. She’s learned a little something about what can result. However, outside, she faces some positive consequences as the protesters greet and hug her.
In San Francisco Bay, the remnants of Harmon’s vessel are cleaned up. In the ruins of Utopia, a shadowy figure hides and waits…
