(Sagacho District, Tokyo)
Rogue overviews what happened so far. Twenty minutes ago, she and Sunfire crashed a meeting of Tokyo’s top thugs, just as they swore allegiance to their new boss, the Silver Samurai. The crooks cleared out in mere seconds but not before Rogue touched the Samurai and glimpsed the abandoned factory she and Shiro are now about to burst into.
Inside the factory is the hideout the Samurai has been sharing with his current partner-in-crime, Lady Deathstrike. But apparently, they cooperate with someone else, too. Rogue sees the woman through the Samurai’s mind. The woman looks familiar to Rogue, yet she fails to remember where she knows her from. Rogue kicks the door open and Shiro opens fire, literally, on Lady Deathstrike and starts to fight her. Rogue notices Blindspot, and grabs a couple of hand-cannons she took from the Yakuza thugs.
Rogue notices a strange look in Blindspot’s eyes. She looks… relieved? Lady Deathstrike dodges Sunfire’s flames, and attacks Rogue instead. She slashes with her claws, but Rogue uses her cannons to defend herself. Unfortunately, the bullets don’t do any damage on the villain herself. Deathstrike grabs a punching bag and throws it at Rogue. She thinks it’s dangerous and shoots it with the cannon, but on impact it explodes.
Blindspot realized what was going to happen, and jumps at Rogue and makes her duck. They land on the ground, and Blindspot is happy to see Rogue, but she doesn’t even know who Blindspot is. Blindspot smiles and asks Rogue if the answer lies on the tip of her tongue, even after what she took from her. Rogue gets angry, and points her cannon to Blindspot’s chin, and demands to know who she is.
Sunfire opens fire again on Lady Deathstrike, and tells her she can’t run anymore. He proudly says it’s one thing to attack him through his cousin, but it’s an entirely different matter when she has to face him by herself. Deathstrike runs to the exit, and grabs a fire extinguisher. She opens it and tries to put out Shiro’s flames, but the water doesn’t even affect his magnificent powers. Shiro starts to boil the water, and fog appears everywhere.
Rogue warns Shiro not to lose sight of Deathstrike. Blindspot whispers to Rogue that they’ve got to get out of there. Shiro gets confused when he hears Rogue, but can’t see her. Lady Deathstrike suddenly jumps out of the fog, with her claws ready. She jumps at Shiro, and slashes right through his legs!
Rogue sees it happening in slow motion. Her mind refuses to accept what her eyes are trying to tell her. Rogue sadly realizes that Shiro isn’t walking away from this. In fact, she fears that Shiro won’t be walking ever again! Then, everything speeds up again, but way too fast. Lady Deathstrike stretches her arm, and the claws hit both Rogue and Blindspot, who falls down. Deathstrike grabs Rogue by her throat, and tells her there will be no more gun fighting, since she hasn’t brought her here to kill her. At least, not yet.
(Three hours later)
Rogue wakes up, chained on a bed. She recognizes the building she’s in. It used to be a working factory before things got wrong. Unfortunately for Rogue, nobody comes near the abandoned factory anymore, and her screams would only be heard by her captives. Rogue notices that they converted the room she’s in used to be a storage cell, which Lady Deathstrike and Blindspot transformed into a regular cell. It’s like they expected Rogue to come.
Rogue looks around, and notices an unconscious Sunfire lying next to her. His feet and a part of his legs are gone, and the rest is covered in bandages. He’s hooked onto a medical monitoring machine, accompanied by an IV and feedinging tube. Rogue thinks that, from the looks of it, the cyber-enhancements Lady Deathstrike had must have involved some serious medical training, since the woman managed to stop Sunfire’s bleeding. Rogue doesn’t know what they’ve planned for Shiro, but she’s certain that, if the guy ever wakes up, he’ll wish that they had just let him die.
Suddenly, the door opens. It’s Blindspot. Rogue demands to know what she wants. Blindspot explains that she lied to Lady Deathstrike that Rogue stole something from Deathstrike’s father, Lord Dark Wind. Deathstrike ordered Blindspot to come into Rogue’s room and find out what she did with it before Yuriko kills her. Rogue is confused, since, according to her, she never stole anything from Deathstrike. Blindspot says that’s true, but mentions that at least, they tried to.
Rogue shouts to Blindspot and wants to know who she is, and why she thinks she knows something about her, when Rogue thinks they have never met before. Blindspot thinks that Rogue knows that isn’t true. She saw recognition in Rogue’s eyes, even though the memory itself isn’t there when her mind reaches for it. Blindspot knows that when Rogue’s mind looks for the memory, the only thing it’s find is a blind spot, which is what Rogue called her back when they were best friends. Rogue doesn’t buy that, since she can’t even remember the woman.
Blindspot tells Rogue that she will remember. She shows Rogue a tiny, pink colored ball-like item, which glows. Blindspot has got something of Rogue, which she has been carrying around for years, and thinks it’s now high time she gave it back to her. Blindspot goes towards Rogue’s mind and, suddenly, her vision turns black. Rogue remembers… a time long past.
(flashback)
Rogue sits in her old house, which she shared together with Mystique and Destiny. She’s young again, and shows her foster mother her new hairdo: instead of one streak through her hair, she now has two, but Mystique doesn’t like it at all. Rogue thinks it’s cool, and asks Mystique to give her at least some credit, since she didn’t get a tattoo like most other girls. Mystique knows that, but thinks that the two streaks make Rogue look old. She asks her best friend, Destiny, for help. Irene apologizes, and says she knows everything about getting old, but can’t help her with Rogue’ looks, since she’s blind.
Rogue says that’s okay, since she knows that’s not the real point: she realizes that Mystique just doesn’t want her precious girl to grow up. Destiny remembers what “little girl” Rogue did to the security staff at the FBI headquarters last month, and she shudders to think what she’ll grow up into. Mystique asks Irene if she doesn’t already know that. Destiny knows a lot, but not every detail of the future makes itself plain to her. Sometimes, she only has vague notions about what’s coming around to bend. Like the trip to Japan they are about to take. She can’t tell Rogue and Mystique why, but Irene wishes that they would rather cancel it.
Mystique can’t, because her client is already expecting them, the flight is already booked and Blindspot will meet them at the airport. Destiny doesn’t like Blindspot. Rogue says she’s all right. Mystique finds Blindspot to be useful. She kisses Destiny on her forehead and explains that, once Rogue gets her memory-absorbing abilities under control, she promises to stop working with Blindspot. Destiny smiles, and wishes that her friends just come home in one piece.
-Interlude-
Rogue remembers it all now. She recalls that before the Brotherhood of Mutants, Mystique made a fortune by providing her services to the highest bidder. Her shapeshifting talents allowed her to infiltrate almost any location and steal anyone’s secrets, but even she had her limits. Sometimes, tricks and torture weren’t enough to loosen the tongue of a stubborn victim. That’s why Mystique needed Blindspot.
-End interlude-
Rogue and a transformed-into-a-man Mystique meet a happy Blindspot at the airport. Blindspot and Rogue hug, and Blindspot tells Rogue she loves her new hair. Mystique asks Blindspot why she brought the camera. Blindspot just wanted to make sure that the plan works, and that they really look like a family on vacation. Rogue and Mystique pose in front of a window, and Blindspot takes a picture. They go onto the plane, where Rogue and Blindspot talk all the trip long, but Mystique is bored.
-Interlude-
Rogue remembers that Blindspot is, like her, a mutant. She can selectively remove a piece of her victim’s memory. It doesn’t matter the memory is just a certain hour, month or whole year, after Blindspot did her job, you never know what you have been missing, until you tried to recall that moment and came up with nothing. Blindspot stole codes, passwords, industrial secrets and even military plans. She made millions for Rogue and Mystique, but Raven never trusted her. Not like Rogue and Destiny.
Rogue’s own powers were similar enough that Mystique wanted her to fill her role one day. That being the case, one would think Blindspot would resent Rogue. But there was a powerful reason why - instead of becoming rivals, they were more like kindred spirits. Ever since Rogue’s disastrous first kiss, she has been scared of her abilities, but Blindspot’s powers were so close in nature to hers that she was actually immune to Rogue’s touch. She was the only person who could hold Rogue’s hand. Rogue remembered that they were working together with Blindspot for about five months when Mystique accepted an assignment in Tokyo.
-End interlude-
An old man named Tomo Yoshida welcomes them in his temple. He wanted the trio to steal something for him that would let him whip America into a rematch of World War II. Mystique wants to settle a few details straight before they start the mission. Tomo likes how Mystique always goes straight to the point, and takes them to his working room, where he shows them some blueprints. Tomo wants them to familiarize with the layout of Lord Dark Wind’s research facility in Yokohama, but Mystique mentions that they’ve already studied satellite photos and construction blueprints. She thinks they’ll need some additional firepower to get in. Her questions have more to do with what exactly Tomo wants them to retrieve.
Tomo didn’t dare discuss that over the phone. He explains that Dark Wind has developed a process that could produce an army of indestructible samurai to fight his Gaijin enemies. Tomo asks Rogue and Mystique if they ever heard of the term “adamantium.” Blindspot heard that it’s supposed to be some kind of metal that’s harder than diamond, but she thought that it was only a myth.
Tomo smiles, and assures them that it’s very real, though very few have succeeded in actually synthesizing it. He shows them a picture of Lord Dark Wind, who is one of those rare geniuses who possesses the secret of adamantium. He adds that in fact, a few years ago, Dark Wind refined that science to reform a feat Tomo never thought was possible: he invented a process whereby the hardest substance known to man can be bonded to a human skeleton system. Imagine it: a man with such bones and sufficient protection for his organs would be unstoppable. An army of such men would never know defeat in battle! Tomo wants Mystique and her crew to bring him a formula for this process. And he promises to pay her for the amount they agreed upon, plus a percentage of any future wealth captured by the army he shall raise.
Blindspot wants to know how they’ll know Tomo will keep to his word. Mystique has checked on his background before entering negotiations with him, and she has learned that money is no problem for him. Tomo claims to only seek to redeem his land of the rising sun, and to punish its enemies. Tomo has one more thing to offer Mystique before they leave. He calls his cousin, Shiro, to them.
-Interlude-
Rogue remembers that was the first time she ever laid eyes on Sunfire. It was shortly before his uncle sent him to attack the United States of America, and this caper would be the trial run.
-End interlude-
A costumed Shiro enters the room. Rogue is unimpressed and wants to know what he is supposed to do. Tomo smiles and recalls that, a few seconds ago, Mystique mentioned that they needed firepower, and he thinks Shiro can make sure they get it. Shiro smiles as well and demonstrates from the palm of his hand, that he has the power to create fire.
-Interlude-
Rogue recalls that they snuck into Lord Dark Wind’s research facility that night. It was in an ugly little stretch of warehouse on Tokyo base. Shiro made himself useful before they ever ran into trouble. He manipulated his fire skills and burned the security fence in front of them, so that they could get in. However, they were soon attacked by ninjas, and Rogue didn’t had the powers of Ms. Marvel at the time, so she had to find a way to defend herself.
-End interlude-
Blindspot told Rogue and Sunfire to fight the guards, while she and Mystique hit the databanks. Shiro quickly defeats some ninja’s with his powers. Rogue decides to absorb one of them, and gets all of the ninjas skills. She uses them, and helps Shiro defeat the leftovers. However, Shiro gets surprised from behind, and falls down unconscious. Rogue notices, and also absorbs his powers. She flies up and laughs, throwing the flames around and, at the same time, defeats her enemies. At the same time, she also puts the factory on fire.
Ten minutes later, Mystique, Rogue, Sunfire and Blindspot stole a boat and escaped from the place. Blindspot and Mystique failed at their task, since Dark Wind had already “cut and run” with his hard disks before they reached him. It looked like if Tomo wanted a secret agent, he’d had to do with Sunfire, who did okay on his first mission. However, it looked like Mystique was rather angry at the way Rogue handled things. Luckily, Mystique could laugh at the matter, and is glad that they at least managed to escape, and congratulates Rogue on her quick thinking. They share a laugh, and Shiro stands triumphantly. Blindspot thinks this is a moment worth of a picture, so she takes one.
-Interlude-
Rogue remembers that Blindspot confiscated the camera on the flight home, but thinks that Blindspot must have secretly backed up the memory card first.
-End interlude-
Rogue smiles and can’t understand she ever forgot Blindspot. Though she gets angry again since Blindspot betrayed her now, and wants to know the reason. Blindspot whispers and apologizes, but mentions that if she hadn’t offered to help Lady Deathstrike, she would have killed her weeks ago. Honestly, she thought that Rogue would save them both. Rogue can’t believe it, since they never stole anything from Lady Deathstrike’s father. However, Deathstrike herself doesn’t know that, and Blindspot says it was the only hope she had to stay alive.
Rogue hopes that the time Blindspot bought was worth it, since she promised Deathstrike something Rogue can’t deliver and, if Yuriko will find that out, Rogue fears that she’ll pull the plug on all of them. They take another look at Sunfire, who still lies unconscious on his bed.
