At the airport the Senator who was aboard the same plane as Storm is giving an interview and explains he thinks they are all equal. So he fought to let Ororo Munroe aboard that plane like any other citizen. And then he watched in shock as she attacked his guards, destroyed the plane and nearly killed them all.
Beast, Nightcrawler and Rachel Grey are watching the TV interview. Beast wryly comments that he is going to go out on a limb and believe that isn’t the whole story. Let’s find out then, Rachel suggests. She looks to the place on the sofa next to her where Storm is curled up. Rachel tells her it’s time to wake up. Ororo mumbles that she thought she’d been arrested. She has been, Rachel agrees. They are just visiting her telepathically at the moment. Right now, Storm’s body is in FBI custody in a specially reinforced federal containment unit in Brooklyn.
Storm looks at her shackled real body. She doesn’t looks so good. She’s got a broken ankle, Rachel points out. The Senator’s guard stomped on it, Storm recalls. And she’s been tranquilized. And the manacles appear to be power dampeners designed to absorb any energy she generates.
Storm explains she knows who is behind the attack on the plane. She allows Rachel to get the face from her memories. An arms company called Eaglestar. This is its CEO Davis Harmon. He is based in Aquaria but she just saw him with Yukio in Vegas. She needs them to find him. He is part of the Four Clans syndicate. She didn’t fight him directly and doesn’t know why he would go after her. Beast suggests that, as an arms dealer, maybe he is after the Senator. Just find him, Storm repeats.
Rachel agrees, but first they are getting Storm out. She’s going to neutralize the sedative in her bloodstream and then Kurt can teleport in and— Storm tells them to think this through for a moment. If the feds have the technology to dampen her power, they could have shielded this place from telepaths. The whole thing feels like a set-up. Maybe they want them to be talking… maybe they want the X-Men to attack.
Kurt gently replies they listened to the Senator’s lies and they drugged her. At this point, he is fine with obliging them. She loves him too, Storm smiles, but they can’t give them any more reasons to attack the school. Kids may get hurt. They are not letting that happen. She tells them to get her Harmon’s location and keep an eye on the Senator. If anyone asks, she’s gone rogue. That’s not inaccurate, Beast points out. She apologizes. He tells her not to be sorry. Be careful.
Rachel takes her mind outside the building to show her their kids aren’t the only ones who could get hurt. Outside are a lot of people protesting for Storm’s release. How did they find out? she wonders. One of the ambulance drivers told some friends where he took her, Rachel replies. Someone posted something on Twitter and within a few hours… So no extra pressure or anything but whatever she’s going to do next will affect a lot more than the X-Men.
Santo Marco:
A family hears about Storm’s arrest on the radio. They are shocked as Storm saved them from the militants.
Mexico:
Marisol and her father hear the news on the TV. Her father scoffs Storm is showing her true colors. Marisol made the right choice coming home. She is a good girl, not like them. Marisol is deeply conflicted.
In Kenya, a worried Forge hears the news.
The feds notice Storm is waking up. The agent in charge calms everyone. She introduces herself to Storm as Agent Frankie Robertson. They spoke briefly before Storm passed out. Before they drugged her, Storm corrects Robertson, who informs her she is under arrest for assault and battery of members of the Secret Service, threatening a US Senator, destruction of about a hundred million dollars of airplane and kidnapping the passengers on priority exec flight 536. That could add up to a few decades in prison. Would she mind answering a few questions?
Weakly, Storm suggests that they work together. She tells her to talk to her forensic people. The plane was attacked from the outside. By munitions, not lightning. Roberson suggests she wait for the first question. Storm continues she saved that plane. Talk to the passengers. Talk to the pilot! The real criminal is still out there right now. And his name is Davis Harmon, CEO of Eaglestar International.
Is she calling a US Senator and his entire Secret Service staff liars? Robertson asks with raised eyebrows. She’s not really thinking about them right now, Storm replies. She is thinking about her. She took this job to help people, didn’t she? That’s why Storm does what she does too. And right now she’s worried about everyone Harmon might have his eyes on. The Senator. Agent Robertson and her people. The protesters outside. She doesn’t know where he is or what he has planned. But she wonders if Robertson could find out with the full intelligence gathering capabilities of the FBI at her fingertips.
Keep an eye on her, Roberson orders and goes to check some facts. Storm tells her guard the manacles are really tight. Could they loosen them a bit? They don’t fall for it.
Sometime later, Robertson returns to announce Davis Harmon is dead. He was murdered two years ago in Aquiria and Eaglestar went into receivership immediately afterwards. And yes, she did take the job to help people. So until she understands what tricks Storm is playing, they are putting her back under. She tells the doctor to go ahead.
Storm secretly freed herself from the manacles five minutes ago. She takes out the guards with some blows and kicks. As she puts weight on her ankle, she groans in pain but still manages to run. She breaks through a glass window on the second floor and jumps on the street opposite the protesters, who recognize her.
One man shouts that they need to protect her and they gather around her. A cop threatens them. Agent Roberson shouts from above for him to stand down. There are children! Undeterred, he warns them he is counting to three.
Enough! Storm decides. She focuses icy winds on the cops to the point that their guns freeze. She then asks everybody to go home but thanks them for their support. While the cops don’t pay attention, she uses a lightning bolt to change the unstable molecules of her costume into street clothes. From the window, Agent Robertson notices but says nothing. The people marvel about the localized snow phenomenon.
Storm heads to the bar she visited with Logan and contacts Rachel. Rachel and Beast join her in astral form and ask how she is feeling. She tells them she is fine. What did they get on Harmon? Beast tells her he was reported dead but there is no report on where the body was buried. The post receivership Eaglestar continued to operate out of Aquiria, but the base was abandoned the last week.
He’s gone underground, Storm realizes. But he’s part of Yukio’s Four Clans. She needs them to hack into Yukio’s network. Crosscheck everything about Eaglestar with what she dealt with the last months.
Rachel points out that they go way back with Yukio. Can’t they just ask her? She wishes, Ororo sighs. She made some new friends these last weeks but also lost a few. She’s still got them, Hank and Ray assure her, and they’ve got this.
Louisiana, 9 hours later, outside a big mansion:
Nightcrawler teleports in to join Storm. Where’s the target? she asks. Second floor, third window from the left. He should probably get out of here, she suggests. She gets to have all the fun, when she goes rogue, he grins. He’s got to give it a try it someday. Taking off, Storm doesn’t recommend it. You lose too much but it has its perks.
Controlled winds tear off the mansion’s roof bricks. Below are the senator and one of his armed Secret Service guards. Storm tells them to stay calm but the guard immediately fires. She uses her winds as shields and realizes this is the guard who stomped on her ankle when she was trying to save his life. She levitates him. He cries she was trying to kill them and calls her a dirty mutant. Disgusted, she tosses him outside.
She tells the Senator tht she’s done a little cross-checking. He received six hundred thousand dollars in campaign funds from a nonprofit called “Concerned Citizens.” Who’s behind Concerned Citizens? He stammers he doesn’t know. She responds to his lie with a lightning bolt close to him. Say his name, she coaxes. Davis Harmon, Eaglestar International, he admits.
Storm continues Harmon ordered the attack on the plane. The Senator agrees, but he told the world Storm did it. He didn’t have a choice! He cries. She tries to calm him. Just tell her where Harmon is. He can’t! Thunder and lightning crackle. He cut a deal with a psychopath! she snarls. And she will not let him squirm away while people die as a result! Panicked, he shouts that Harmon will kill him. He was dead and came back! He can’t stop him and neither can she! Well, then she guesses they’ll die trying, she announces while behind her FBI helicopters close in.
