Utopia:
Hope’s team is about to start a training session against a group of senior X-Men including Storm, Magneto, Colossus, Magik, Namor, Psylocke and Boom Boom, while Cyclops, Emma Frost and Danger watch. Cyclops asks Danger to record and Emma is looking forward to the footage of Hope’s humiliating defeat next time she indulges in an arrogance bender. While Scott believes Hope’s team doesn’t stand a chance, he wouldn’t count on her being humiliated.
As they rush into battle, Hope reminds her team how to pick their opponents. Pixie blinds Namor and reminds her they are six to seven X-Men… And one of them is Magneto! Transonic adds. Yeah, but one of them is Boom Boom Velocidad points out while hitting Magik at superspeed. On Hope’s order, Pixie teleports Colossus away.
Emma expresses disappointment at Pixie playing Tinkerbell to Hope’s band of Lost Boys. Cyclops thinks it’s a good idea. Hope needed a teleporter and, unlike the other kids, Pixie has had a few years of X-Men training.
It doesn’t do her any good, however, as Magik hits her in the back, telling her it’s bad form to use magic against her brother when Illyana taught her to do it.
In the air, Transonic tells Storm this is an honor. Storm suggests she call her ‘Ororo’ after they test her combat skill. Transonic tackles Storm.
Still suffering the effect of the pixie dust (and believing he is fighting a carnivorous clown fish), Namor protests that they drugged him. He pays them the honor of his combat and they resort to trickery and cowardice!
Having decided he is the alpha male, Teon attacks Namor, something that does not sit well with Cyclops.
Boom Boom asks Psylocke to stop Velocidad but he is moving too quickly, not through space but time. Cheater! Boom Boom shouts. What has Hope told them? he asks nervously and stumbles as Namor throws Teon against him. Hope orders him to stop fooling around as she trains her weapon on Namor.
Magneto observes she has fire. Zero calls up to and points at him. Magneto used to be the bogeyman. Even back home in Japan, he was the symbol of all that is to be feared about mutants… and here he is, playing with children!
Cyclops orders Danger to pay attention. This feels bad. They are already harboring Kenji after his mutation killed all those people in Tokyo. Magneto may not be the best mentor…
Magneto tells Kenji that every man is infinitely more complex than his image. He has often chosen to teach young mutants in need of a lesson… He knows what they say, Kenji retorts, as he forms tentacles that burrow into Magneto’s eyes, ears and mouth, those who can’t do, teach! Magneto instinctively lashes out and his magnetic power tears Kenji into two halves.
The fight comes to a standstill with everyone shocked. Hope calls him a bastard, while Magneto points out the boy provoked it. A moment later, Kenji recollects himself and his body stitches itself together. He is about to attack again.
Hope asks him to stop. He is okay. Kenji apologizes. Cyclops sharply asks Magneto what the hell is wrong with him. Magneto tells him to calm himself. The boy is a self-healing uniform system. He doesn’t have to breathe or organs to--
Cyclops reminds him this was a training exercise. And he just trained him, Magneto shoots back. For what a child among the X-Men can expect of their future!
Scott declares the exercise over and orders Hope to take Kenji to the infirmary. She can take care of her team, Hope snaps and suggests Cyclops try to control his.
Kenji assures her he will be fine. Did he know he’d be able to survive something like that? she asks. He admits to suspicions. He feels and the doctors confirmed that he is no longer made up of pieces. Once Hope matured his mutation, the whole of his self became one. Fluid. His mind, his will, they exist not in part of him but in every bit. So he has grown curious. Can he separate from himself? Become more than one? Or will he be carving out pieces of his soul? Leaving them to rot in the sun…
Velocidad interrupts, announcing he has a better question: do they like his beard (referring to his stubble)? Does he rock it or does it look gross? Hope tells him not to be a jerk. Kenji has a legitimate concern. So does he, Gabriel retorts. Every time he uses his power, he burns faster and further into his old age. She’s got them training so often, he now has white hairs and a beard!
Laurie takes Kenji aside, telling him if he ever want to talk— He turns away and orders her not to embarrass herself. She is not his type!
This training is literally killing him! Gabriel protests, and she doesn’t even--
Hope is far more interested in where Teon is. Currently, he is harassing the Stepford Cuckoos in Cerebra with his insistent suggestions to mate. When they peek into his mind, they announce eww and telepathically call Hope to collect her pet.
While she leaves, Kenji sees Surge and Martha Johansson, the living brain. He introduces himself. Surge sullenly reminds him that they met at the cookout of horror, like, four days ago. Kenji apologizes, but he was talking to her breathtaking friend. He informs Martha it is a pleasure to be in her company. Noriko translates that Martha can’t talk to him the way she normally does telepathically. Kenji explains he must invite people into his thoughts, but he would give her access to all of him.
Within the Cerebra chamber, Irma and Celeste Cuckoo ask Hope to take her rabid hump puppet away from their fresh pedicures. She’s sorry if he was rude, Hope begins, but assures them he is harmless. Phoebe tells her it’s okay. It’s not okay, her sisters insist. The things he was imagining could qualify as assault! Hope retorts plenty of people have probably imagined assaulting them.
She breaks off and points at the world hologram. There’s a light. Why didn’t they tell her there’s a new mutant? Phoebe wants to explain but her sisters hush her. They are aware of that one. He isn’t an issue.
She wasn’t aware! Hope snaps. She’s been studying the dossiers of all known mutants and there haven’t been any there. So why is that? Not an issue, the Cuckoos insist. Hope sees things differently. She copies Celeste’s power to get the coordinates and alerts the team.
Kenji is still chatting up Martha, asking if he could make a piece of art based on her, when he, Laurie and Gabriel receive a telepathic message from Hope, who tells them to gather at the training site. She then suggests the Cuckoos not make her do that again. Phoebe tries to apologize and her sisters ask what is wrong with her today.
The youngsters meet and Hope gives Pixie the coordinates. Zero comes a bit late, dragging along Martha in her casing. He introduces her as Martha Johansson or No-Girl. When he tries to introduce the team, he asks if they have come up with a better name than “the Lights.” Maybe Martha can find one with that exquisite brain of hers, he suggests.
Can they please just teleport blindly into deadly battle already? an annoyed Laurie asks. Pixie casts the teleportation spell and, a moment later, they arrive in Pakistan near the Chinese border.
Laurie protests when she hears this. They could have dropped on land mines and the Pakistani government has a zero tolerance policy on mutant activity. She asks Megan to take them back but Hope forbids it. It’s not ideal, she agrees, but no worse than the bad situations they had to pull any of them out of. There’s someone probably transforming here and if it’s anything like what they went through, they are scared, alone and have no clue what is happening. This might as well be Kenji or Idie or the kid they lost in Sheffield. Whoever it is, they are going to save them.
Kenji informs Martha that, yes, Hope is always like this. She tells them they will be fine as long as they keep a low profile. She asks No-Girl to connect them telepathically when they split up.
When she tries to team up Zero and Transonic, Kenji refuses, insisting he stay with Martha. Hope agrees; Transonic and Primal are with her and Velocidad gets some more alone-time with Pixie. Pixie begins to bitch, but Gabriel beats her to it and asks if they can reschedule that guilt trip for when they are out of hostile territoryCall if they find trouble or a mutant, Hope suggests. Those usually go hand in hand, he points out. How does she want to do this? he asks Pixie. Fast, is the reply.
Hope’s group walks into a small settlement. Laurie apologizes for freaking out before but still, if Hope had told them where they would go they could have grabbed clothes to help blend in. Or Hope could have borrowed someone’s invisibility powers. Hope points out no one on Utopia has this power, but she will keep it in mind for next time.
She looks down the settlement through binoculars. Laurie continues she is surprised that Hope paired Gabriel and Megan… Hope interrupts that he was never her boyfriend. She should never have kissed him. After all, nothing good can come from letting hormones affect their missions. Which is why she hopes Laurie will get over whatever she’s feeling for Kenji. She’s not judging, but she doesn’t want to see her get hurt.
Not far away, Pixie is waiting on a building’s roof when Gabriel returns. Nothing odd, he announces, except for the goats indoors thing. She tells him to keep looking and not flirt with her. He sighs he can’t win with her. Maybe he could have if he didn’t put the moves on her while dating Hope, she snaps back. First off, who says “put the moves” on someone? he retorts. Second, they weren’t dating. They went out like once. And third, he’s a teenage boy. This is exactly when he is supposed to be an idiot. And it’s slipping away from him so fast! This probably isn’t the best time to go into this. He’s right, she begins. He’s just making it worse, isn’t he? Gabriel exclaims.
No, the three men behind him with high tech rifles announce. They make this worse. There is no room for brightly colored super heroes here. Except buried in the dirt! Gabriel tells Pixie to flee as he attacks them at superspeed.
Kenji strolls through another part of the settlement carrying Martha. It’s truly remarkable that she can make all the people “unsee” them. She does so easily what he struggles to do as an artist. To manipulate the perception and understanding of others. Subtly guide their view of the world… as he’d like them to see it. He would love to understand her better…
What, him? he suddenly exclaims. Martha has pointed him to a single man. He asks her to call the others. And she alerts them. Gabriel arrives first, followed by Laurie. All three run towards the man, who asks in American English what they are doing there. Militia are coming too. The man apologizes. They weren’t supposed to be here. He only meant to do it to them. He opens his coat and shows the explosives strapped to his body. Hope comes running but, just before she reaches the others, the explosives go off.
