The New Xavier School for the Gifted, a hidden location surrounded by snow:
'Ha!' Eva Bell a.k.a. Tempus exclaims as she raises a fist – which is promptly grabbed by Illyana “Magik” Rasputin, who throws the younger mutant to the ground. The other students can be seen nearby, playing in the snow.
'AGGH!' Tempus exclaims, covered in snow. Emma Frost and Cyclops a.k.a. Scott Summers stand over her. 'On your feet Cyclops tells her. 'If you let me use my time bubble powers, Professor Cyclops...' Tempus begins, but Emma tells her that her mutant power is just one of the tools in her toolbox, that she has to sharpen all of her blades. 'You’re mixing your metaphors, Ms Frost' Eva replies. 'Get up' Emma orders her. Eva gets to her feet, 'Okay, okay, but come on, Rasputin, Magik, whatever you call yourself... take it easy on me, I'm new at this' Eva pleads. 'No' Magik replies.
'And how are you feeling, Ms Frost?' Cyclops asks. 'Not today' Emma replies. 'Not today what?' Cyclops responds. 'I'm not in the mood to have pleasantries with you' Emma declares. Cyclops asks Emma if he did something that he is no aware of, or if this is just one of those “ex-lovers trying to be something else” bumps in the road? Emma tells Scott that he seems smug today, and that she is not in the mood for smug. 'I'm smug?' Scott asks, telling Emma to look around, as things are coming together. 'But we are still broken' Emma points out. 'But we're healing' Scott declares. 'Maybe' Emma replies as she starts to walk away. 'Where's Magneto?' Cyclops calls out to Emma, who responds He's Magneto... he's wherever he wants to be'.
Indeed, Magneto is in his sparse quarters within the New Xavier School. He hangs his head, pieces of metal float around him, while he recalls a time long ago, battling the original X-Men. His mobile phone, also floating around him, pings, and he receives a message which says :
“There was no mayonnaise on my sandwich”. This is in code, and translates to “We need to meet right now”. Magneto replies, also in code, saying “Innerspace is an underrated movie”, which means “I assumed we were done with each other after last week's drama”. The response to this is “I voted for the garlic bread flavor”, translated to “Well, you were wrong”. Magneto's coded response to this is “Do you know who makes the best donuts in the world?”, meaning “Portland. 2 Hours. Mt Tabor Park”.
Back outside, 'Just so you know, I havve never actually been in a fist – WHOA!' Eva exclaims as she puts her arms up to defend herself when Magik kicks her. 'Ha!' Magik exclaims. 'I don't even – ahh!' Eva declares as she grabs Magik's ankle. There is a glow around Magik's leg, before Eva throws Magik into the snow.
'Whoa! Hey now!' Christopher Muse a.k.a. Triage calls out as he sees his teammate throw Magik down. 'Did you see -' Cyclops begins. 'I saw it' Emma tells him. 'I told you there was more to her' Cyclops adds. 'Smug' Emma mutters. 'Go Eva!' Triage exclaims, while Magik remarks that it seems Eva is ready for some next level training. 'Oh, no. No. I really think you are -' Tempus begins, before creating a time bubble around Magik. 'It's how all of -' Magik begins before being trapped in the time bubble. 'No. No powers. She said no powers' Emma reminds Tempus as she, Cyclops and Triage go over to her. 'I didn't – I didn't mean – I just -' Eva stammers. 'Get her out of there' Cyclops tells Tempus, who closes her eyes, then there is a POP – and the time bubble, and Magik inside it, vanish. 'What did you do?' Emma demands. 'What did I do?' Tempus replies, wide-eyed. Fabio Medina, Mindee Cuckoo and Benjamin Deeds gather around, while Angel a.k.a. Warren Worthington the third, from the past, hovers overhead. 'Uh' Tempus utters, looking at her hands, as everyone stares at the space where Magik once was.
'Who do we call about this? Who do we trust?' Emma asks. Cyclops suggests that they have to go to Reed Richards. 'But he's aligned with Stark, who's aligned with -' Emma points out, but Cyclops interrupts her, stating that it doesn't matter. 'We have to get Illyana back before permanent damage -' he begins. 'No. You're right' Emma agrees.
'Oh, no' Tempus utters, while her teammates look at her, concerned, then, suddenly, Magik appears, in the time bubble, which then vanishes, '- us were trained' Magik concludes her sentence. 'Oh my God!' Tempus exclaims. Cyclops approaches Magik and asks her if she is okay. 'That was fairly insane' Angel remarks after landing on the snow. 'Wait, what – did something just happen?' Magik asks. Cyclops tells her that he thinks she might have travelled in time. 'How long was I gone?' Magik frowns. Cyclops tells her that she was gone a minute, 'Did we know she could do that?' Magik enquires. 'No, we did not' Scott responds.
Emma tells Eva to calm down, and assures her that nothing happened. 'Nothing happened?' Eva asks. 'It's just a little time displacement' Emma explains, adding that they knew she could stop people in time, but they didn't know she could move them in time. Eva suddenly turns and runs away. 'Eva!' Emma calls after her. Christopher does the same, so Cyclops tells him to give her a minute 'But what if she's running away?' Triage asks. 'She's not. She just freaked out' Celeste Cuckoo declares, to which Triage asks her how she knows. Cyclops raises a fist and tells the students that this is what he was talking about the other day – not to assume that their mutant abilities are just what they are at face value. 'There could be levels, layers of things that you just haven't figured out yet' he adds, declaring that it is the most exciting part about being a mutant, and the most dangerous. 'Back when I was part of the first Xavier School, there was a girl named Jean...' Cyclops begins, when everyone's attention suddenly turns to the sky, as a loud jet takes off from the hidden school. 'That couldn't be Eva, right?' Warren asks. 'Celeste?' Emma asks, but Celeste reports that she couldn't read any thoughts. 'Then it was Magneto. He knows how to block us nosy psychics' Emma points out. She tells Cyclops that it seems like Erik has somewhere else to be. 'It would seem so' Scott agrees.
Shortly, in Mt Tabor Park, Portland, Maria Hill sits on a park bench, as Magneto approaches and sits at the other end of the bench. 'Erik' Maria remarks. 'Director Hill' Magneto replies, commenting that she looks rested, and that he sees she got some sun. 'Your X-Men broke into my helicarrier, transported me to Hawaii against my will and stole a witness. And now you're going to poke at me? Is that your genius plan?' Maria asks. Magneto reminds her that the “witness” was a young, innocent mutant who SHIELD had taken from his home and were interrogating as if he were a prisoner of war. 'What did you think was going to happen?' Magneto asks. Maria explains that she thought the boy was going to give up the location of their secret headquarters and she was going to arrest Scott Summers for murder and public threats against the United States. 'And it wasn't I who launched that mission. It was Scott Summers, and you know that' Erik declares, before asking Maria why she called him here. 'To tell you this relationship between us has come to an end. If you have something to say to this organization, you will no longer be speaking to me directly' Maria announces.
Erik asks Maria if he has done something to offend her, and Maria stands up, telling Erik that she understands his reluctance to give her certain information. 'But you could have and did not give me a heads-up that the X-Men were about to attack us' She tells Erik that she doesn't trust him. 'We don't trust each other' Magneto points out, to which Maria reminds him that he started this. 'You came to me. You came looking for this relationship and I've decided that I'm not going to have it any longer'. Maria then tells Magneto that she believes he knows Alison Blaire. 'Dazzler' Magneto replies. 'Erik' Dazzler smiles and eaves as she approaches Maria, who tells Magneto that he deals with her now. 'If you have something to say to me, you say it to her. She is now the Special Mutant Liaison' Maria explains. Magneto tells Maria that he is not comfortable with this, to which Maria tells him that she doesn't care. 'You called me all the way over here to tell me this?' Magneto asks. 'I was going to say it was out of courtesy, but that's not true' Maria responds, reminding Magneto that he has a tendency to fly off the handle and even though his powers are broken, and he may not be able to drop a tank on her head like he used to back in his more terrorist days, she thought it best to handle this in person.
Magneto narrows his eyes at Maria, who remarks 'Fine. You want a relationship with me? Where is the location of Scott Summers' secret training camp?' Maria asks. Magneto ignores her question and asks Maria who is behind the Sentinel attacks on his people. 'And how do they know where we are going to be before we do?' he adds. 'You came to me, Erik. If you have something to say, you say it to Agent Blaire' Maria replies. Maria turns and starts to walk away, 'Bring me Scott Summers. Have fun, kids' she says to Dazzler. Suddenly, 'Hold on...' Magneto calls out, and Maria smiles to herself.
Meanwhile, at the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, a large crowd has gathered, some of them dressed up like mutants, sporting banners stating that they are mutant lovers, and carrying posters with Cyclops's image on them.
'Scott, you might want to see this' Emma remarks as she, Magik and the students stand before a monitor, depicting the gathering at the University of Michigan. A spokesperson at the protest declares that Scott Summers showed them that even when this government has done nothing but show the mutant people the back of its hand, the X-Men are still more than willing to use all of their mutant power, everything in their power, to help them. He asks if anyone noticed that the minute Scott Summers and his X-Men had enough power to change the world for the better, they immediately went about trying to change the world for the better? He asks why the Avengers had to stop them, adding that they all know Scott Summers tried to save the world, and then all of a sudden he is a wanted man. The protestor asks why Scott is a wanted man – because he thumbs his nose at the corporate overlords that run this country like a puppet show, and now the Avengers and Fantastic Four, and whoever else are acting liked rabid dogs, are trying to put them down. 'Why?' he asks.
The spokesperson continues, declaring that mutants are their future. 'They know it, we know it and they are trying to stop it!' He explains that they have gathered here, called this gathering, to let the X-Men know and to let Scott Summers know that he does not have to fight alone, that he does not stand alone. Watching the monitor still, Emma suggests that it is a trap. 'Funny' Scott replies, while the young Angel tells Scott that this is insane, and asks him when he ever thought something like this would happen. 'For me it's just like it was yesterday...but when we first started the X-Men, every time we left the house, someone threw a rock at our head'. Magneto enters and declares that Warren is right. 'This is borderline historic. We should send a message back' he announces. 'Like a fruit basket?' Benjamin Deeds suggests. Emma turns to Scott and asks him what he is going to do. 'All right... the following is strictly voluntary' Scott announces after looking at his supporters on the monitor.
Back at the protest rally, one of the supporters has a mega-phone and declares 'Can you feel that? The eyes of the world are on us today!' she announces that she has a letter to the President of the United States and that she will read it for everyone: “Dear Mister President. I speak for millions when I ask: when are you going to stop persecuting the mutant people?” she begins. 'Yes!' someone in the crowd calls out. 'Louder!' another exclaims. 'We as a nation -' the woman continues, before gasping 'Oh my God' as she, and everyone else, stares at Cyclops, Emma, Magik and all of their students, who have just teleported in amongst the crowd. 'Hi. May I?' Cyclops asks the woman with the mega-phone, who gives it to him as he apologizes to the crowd for dropping by unannounced. He introduces himself, and remarks that these are his X-Men. The crowd stare in shock.
Scott informs the crowd that when he was a mutant, a man named Charles Xavier saved him. He claims that this, today, was the beginning of his dream – of mutants and humans living together, working together, coexisting together. 'And it breaks my heart that...he didn't live to see...' Scott begins, lowering the mega-phone, before recovering, bringing the mega-phone back up, he informs the crowd that they came here today to tell them not to blame the Avengers, or the Fantastic Four, or any of those people who have taken it upon themselves to try to make the world a better place than it is. 'They are good people. They are people who have worked and fought alongside us for a very long time. They are not the ones trying to keep us from our God-given rights'. Cyclops continues, stating that they have a long way to go, because there are those out there who will do anything to keep them from true freedom. 'There are those who would try to kill us before they would let us be their equal. And, I'm sorry to say, first on that list is -' Scott begins, when suddenly, a blast of energy knocks he and the other X-Men over. Cyclops turns aorund to see a strange robot looming over him that identifies itself as a Blockbuster Sentinel. It announces that it is online, and that mutants have been identified and targeted for termination!
