Surrounded by her mental creations, a monstrous-looking mutant teenager sobs she is sorry and begs for forgiveness. The New Mutants hang as prisoners around her. Her voice comes from their minds as she tries to assure them that she didn’t mean to hurt anyone and begs for help.
Outside the dome created by the girl are Mirage and Boom Boom. Mirage fears, at the rate this thing is growing, they will have to evacuate the city. She asks Boom Boom if she can tell the Carnelian cops, who are some distance away, that they need to start evacuation. Boom Boom scoffs. The only reason the men let them through is because they believed they would be killed by that thing.
Dani points out there are thousands of people in those apartments. They shouldn’t have to die because of a few loudmouthed cops. She can’t speak Russian, so it’s up to Boom Boom. Defeated by her logic, Boom Boom acquiesces.
That moment, a Blackbird lands and they are joined by the rest of the team, Cypher (and Warlock), Wofsbane, Armor, Mondo and (surprisingly) their old foe WildSide. Boom Boom immediately gets in his face, until Wolfsbane tells her to stop. Mirage asks why they brought him along and Cypher explains they might need him, plus this a new start. They are all on the same side. Looking at the cops, he adds it is nice that the locals are helping. They are not, Dani corrects him. They hope the sphere will eat them.
In the Carnelian Palace, two guards wake disgruntled Prime Minister Prokopovych and inform him about a problem involving mutants and a kind of black hole. His presence is requested. They have a helicopter prepared for liftoff as soon as he is ready. He makes excuses that he needs five minutes to get dressed and orders them to make sure the press is there. Damn mutants, he mutters.
Krakoa, the Akademos Habitat:
Magik is back and is looking for her teammates. She runs into Glob Herman and is surprised he has a chicken coop. Glob tells her it is about the eggs and they are nice to have around, then he begins extolling the different personalities of the chicken.
Illyana cuts him off and asks about the New Mutants. He can’t quite recall the name of the country they went to. Eastern European. Sounds like “carnage” but isn’t. Carnelia, Illyana suggests correctly. Glob agrees and explains a mutant needed saving there. He complains he was making them laksa for dinner and now there is no one there to eat it. Illyana asks how the cartel knew to find them in Pilger. While he prepares the noodles, he names an internet site that doxxed them, something called mutant dox or similar. They took a picture of Beak and Angel and the kids at a grocery store and they posted the address. Illyana angrily repeats that the site just posted their address on the internet, like they didn’t know that would put them in danger. Worse than Limbo even, Glob agrees and offers her some laksa.
Back in Carnelia, Cypher is having a close look at the sphere. Fascinating, he mutters. Dani snarks they didn’t call him here to fall in love with the damn thing. They know what it is, right? he asks rhetorically. A growing abyss that will swallow the whole city if they don’t do anything about it, Dani retorts. Doug explains that these are the dreams of the little girl in there. Karma was right. She is having a nightmare and pulling in the world around her.
Boom Boom scoffs, they figured that. They didn’t need him to “dougsplain” that. She suggests tossing in a bomb to wake her up. She gets ready to do just that. Doug gets in her way and scolds her. Everyone trapped in there is connected in the same neural network. If she blows this up, there is no telling what will happen to them. Boom Boom defends herself: She wasn’t going to blow her up. Doug explains that nightmares are usually just people trying to understand what is happening to them. Their brain is trying to make sense of their environment. But, in severe cases, it goes deep and is a sign of trauma. They have to go in there and connect and give her good dreams.
Dani explains that the nightmare sphere grew bigger when it pulled the others in. If that girl is drawing powers from them, isn’t that only going to make matters worse? Rahne announces it’s that likely but they need to find a way to reach her. She changes to her transitional form and sniffs the air. It smells medicine-y. She doesn’t think it is safe for them to go in.
WildSide asks if that is all they do. Standing around talking? Boring. Where’s the action? If the rest of the Mutant Liberation Front were here, they’d have already kicked that thing’s ass and be on their way to the bar. Dani orders him to shut up, then announces she has an idea how to send a small tea. In safely. Has she seen Poltergeist? she asks Armor.
In the meantime, nearby the Prime Minister is being interviewed. He proposes that this happened because they refused to sign the Krakoan Accords. Clearly the mutants are behind this. While the mutants prepare linking together with a rope, he announces they will put an end to this charade and show the mutants they will not tolerate their attempts at interfering with Carnelian politics.
Boom Boom fastens the rope to the plane and mutters she can’t believe Armor agreed to go along with a plan from an 80ies horror movie. Rahne replies she thinks it is a good plan.
The Prime Minister aggressively asks the police why they are just standing around. Their chief replies if the mutants want to risk their lives trying to stop this thing he doesn’t see why. Moron! the Prime Minister cuts him off. This is all a show. The mutants are “fixing” a problem they created. And they fell for it! He orders them to arrest the mutants.
Rahne asks what they are shouting about. She gives her three guesses, Boom Boom sighs.
Near the sphere, Armor is tied to the Blackbird. She has formed a protective armor around herself, Mondo, WildSide and Cypher. Dani announces if it seems they are in trouble, she will pull them out.
Transporting them towards the sphere, Armor wonders how long she can keep the armor up with all the extra cargo. Cypher tells her they won’t need long. If they reach the girl, hopefully Wildside can disrupt her nightmare and induce more pleasant dreams, and they’ll be out.
Boom Boom calls them and suggests they hurry as the locals are getting restless. She and Wolfsbane are surrounded by police.
Dani stays behind and tells the others to tug the line if there is trouble. Once they are inside, they realize they can’t see the outside anymore.
Inside, they are surrounded by strange nightmarish images and the girl seems farther away than she was from the outside.
Finally, they are close to the girl. Cypher tells WildSide to inject her without letting any of the exterior atmosphere in. He asks Armor to just let his claws out of the forcefield. WildSide reaches for the girl… That moment, she wakes up and glares at them. The creatures attack Armor’s sphere. They hope Dani felt the tug but the tentacles tear off the line.
Outside, Dani is horrified when she only gets back part of the line.
Inside, Armor is about to lose consciousness and begins hallucinating her dead mother and brother.
