San Francisco:
A homeless, young, Black man huddles on the street, muttering, “they are coming.” Keith, an elderly social worker, crouches next to the man, Ben, and asks if someone has been hassling him. Ben’s eyes begin to glow as he panics and shouts at Keith to get away. They were never going to let Ben leave! They’ve come to take him back!
Energy bursts from him and, suddenly, a fleet of UFOs with tentacles hang in the sky.
Amidst them is the Marauder. Cyclops broadcasts on all frequencies that the X-Men are here to help.
“Here to help,” Kid Omega mocks. Blow them kisses, why doesn’t he? Cyclops wryly points out that, if he told them that they were here for an X-gene activation alert, while an alien invasion is going on, they might jump to conclusions. He asks Magik about their status. She replies interfacing with the X-drive feels weird, but they jumped the Marauder 3,000 miles, so they can call that a win.
Cyclops turns to the team explaining they have been following the signal of a mutant about to manifest, and it has happened. They’ve got a newly manifested mutant in the middle of a crisis zone - so business as usual. He tells them their primary objective is the mutant, but they are not going to ignore the aliens. San Francisco has been good to them. Remember the Iron Night – helping humans makes their lives easier! Magik, Psylocke and he will be on the ground securing the mutant. Temper, Juggernaut and Quentin are on alien duty.
Quentin corrects him; it’s Kid Omega. Cyclops replies he hates calling him that. Which is why he insists, Quentin smirks.
Cyclops and the women are soon on the ground. Cyclops orders Quentin to establish psychic comms. Quentin stalls, until Cyclops gives in and addresses him as Kid Omega. Quentin obeys and adds Cerebro’s psychic tracking to Cyclops’ field of vision.
Worried about the little green men? Magik teases him. He has two wildly dangerous women with enormous swords looking out for him, he retorts. When he was 13, he thought this is what heaven looks like.
In the Marauder, Quentin is having the time of his life. With his psionics integrated with the ship’s avionics, he is shooting mind bullets at the aliens via the integrated TK cannons.
Enough with the small fry! Juggernaut orders. He wants a swing at the mothership!
Quentin shouts at him to get in the mass driver or Temper will have to do it. Cain is confused. He wants to get in there and putting Idie in there wouldn’t do anything. Annoyed, Idie explains that he is quoting his stupid cartoon. He didn’t even get it right.
Battling on the streets, Cyclops tries to figure out whether there is something weird about their situation. She can’t imagine what would make him think that, Kwannon remarks sarcastically. As she uses her sword to block a blast, Magik interjects that they are both being nerds, and none of this is weird to her at all!. Kwannon points out that Magik was raised in a hell dimension, so her idea of weird demands a certain amount of recalibration. Fair enough, Illyana admits.
Cyclops explains that there has been contact with two different alien species that fit this description: the Brll’nah and the Grey Family. But these are neither? Magik asks and grabs one of the aliens.
Psylocke prepares to telepathically find out. She manifests her psychic blade. Cyclops asks if psychic contact with an alien mind is a good idea. Psylocke replies that her telepathy may be weaker than Quire’s, but her mind is of a steel he could never comprehend. She drives the blade into the alien’s head.
Inside the Marauder, Juggernaut grins, he has wanted to get inside the massdriver since McCoy created the thing. He and Idie fist bump and he gets in.
Idie informs Quentin. He tells her to fire it up. She reminds him if her powers aren’t interfacing with the Marauder to handle the waste heat, they are a flying fire ball. She gets in position, pulling two levers, and Juggernaut is fired toward the alien ship.
Looks like Hank’s human rail gun works, Scott observes wryly. Illyana is impressed.
Psylocke announces that the alien doesn’t have any thoughts. She thinks none of this is real. Illyana points out that the mothership and the smaller ships just fade away when destroyed. The battle suits did the same when they trashed them. Scott realizes this isn’t a real invasion, but created by their mutant, whether intentional or not. They need to get to them, before someone else figures this out! They fight their way through more aliens.
In a cul-de-sac, surrounded by aliens, Ben shouts he won’t let them hurt him again. One optic blast later, the aliens are gone and Cyclops tells Ben not to be scared. They are here to help.
Are they with the aliens? Ben asks. No, they are with him, Cyclops assures him. He explains that Ben is a mutant and created these aliens. Panicking and glowing with energy, Ben shouts he can’t be a mutant. He is too old! Scott insists he listen - they tracked his X-gene activation signature. His powers manifested today. He doesn’t know why it didn’t happen when Ben was younger, but it happened, and they need to get him away!
Ben lashes out with an energy blast that sweeps them off their feet and shouts they won’t take him away in their spaceship. Psylocke lands elegantly, while the other two hit the ground and points out the Marauder is a spaceship…
Psych communication only, Cyclops orders, and they hatch a plan.
Cyclops tries to calm Ben, who shouts he was abducted. Never again, he says quietly and turns his power against himself. He is gone, as are all traces of the aliens.
Ben is a mutant? his social worker asks. “Was,” Cyclops corrects him, like too many others he has known.
Later at the Factory, Cyclops tells the team the story the crowd believes, while behind the scenes they saved Ben Liu.
Ben is now lying in a bed, surrounded by Cyclops, Beast and Magneto, and it is now up to them to figure out what happened to him.
