Downtown Los Angeles, ‘Stop tight there!’ a police officer shouts at the newly-returned mutant Bishop, who lumbers towards the officer and his comrade. ‘Hold up, big guy, this is a restricted area!’ one of the officers points out. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ the other asks. Lucas Bishop growls at them, and energy starts to swirl around him. ‘Hang on - what’s he doing?’ one of the officers asks. They both reach for their guns, ‘Back off, or we’ll -’ the other warns Bishop, who just growls again, before roaring furiously.
In the meantime, at a nightclub, Betsy “Psylocke’ Braddock finds herself confronted by possessed night clubbers. At times like this, she begins to regret giving up on murder. ‘Destroy that filthy #$%&!’ one man shouts as he raises a baseball bat towards her. ‘Stop her!’ ‘Stop her!’ others call out as they try to grab Betsy, who kicks them back and readies her psi-knife. Another man has her sword and prepares to strike her with it. But, Betsy is a ninja-telepath, and it is hard not to make friends. She takes psychic possession of one of the men, forcing him to punch the one who has her sword, and it falls from his grasp. Betsy isn’t above using a little psychic coercion to even the odds. But, as she explores the minds of the night clubbers, she finds a surprise - an avatar of an angel, singing ‘Stop her!’
At that moment, the avatar’s owner, a frightened little girl being held nearby in a vault, ‘Stop her’ the girl psychically commands the night clubbers, while she holds her hands out towards the two heroes who are trying to rescue her - the X-Woman Ororo “Storm” Munroe and Eugene Milton Judd, the former member of Alpha Flight called Puck. ‘There’s no need to be scared, child’ Storm tells the girl. ‘Puck, can you -?’ Storm begins, but Puck replies ‘Do I look like I’m good with kids?’
Suddenly, purple energy filters around them, as the six-armed Time-Witch called Spiral appears next to the girl. ‘Back off, Storm!’ Spiral calls out, while Storm warns Spiral to back away from the girl. ‘Where’d she come from?’ Puck wonders, while Spiral starts to cast a teleport-spell, and tells Storm that she makes her laugh. ‘In this world, what’s a goddess got on a ninja?’ but Storm sees Spiral about to put her hands together and alerts Puck to the face that she is a teleporter. ‘I’m on it!’ Puck exclaims as he dives towards Spiral, and vanishes with her and the girl.
‘Surprise!’ Puck calls out as he materializes on a rooftop with Spiral and the girl. Spiral tells Puck that he is a fool to tag along, while Puck remarks that he doesn’t usually punch women, as he lunges towards Spiral, who casually asks ‘You think you can punch me?’ as she flips over him - but Puck grabs on of her wrists, and boasting that he once punched the Devil himself, so yes, he slams Spiral to the rooftop. But, Spiral reaches up and three of her hands slap Puck in the face, one after the other. Puck punches back, sending Spiral falling towards the edge of the rooftop. She starts to cast another spell, but Puck rushes towards her, ‘Not so fast!’ he calls out. ‘In the name of Hank Williams, you’re under arr-’ he begins, before struggling, as Spiral puts to of her hands on his face. ‘I don’t listen to country’ Spiral remarks before casually tossing Puck off the rooftop.
On the dance floor of the nightclub, Betsy telepathically asks Storm and Puck to report in. ‘Where are you?’ she asks, but gets no response. ‘Just me then? Splendid’ Betsy remarks, realizing that she will have to keep her new sidekick motivated by speaking his language, she instructs him to fight them, to hit them hard, with whatever it takes. The man then slams his fist into another of the night clubbers. ‘Yes!’ the man calls out under Betsy’s influence. Betsy tells him that he is big and strong, and that they are not his friends, that there is nothing to be afraid of. The man sees himself playing a video game as Betsy tells him that this isn’t even real life, as he slams his fists into another of the night clubbers.
Back on the rooftop, Spiral holds the girl and calls her Ginny as she asks her if she is all right, and whether they hurt her. ‘Who were those people?’ Ginny asks. ‘It’s okay, baby girl. It’s okay -’ Storm begins, when suddenly, it starts to rain, and Spiral looks up, to see Storm, holding Puck whom she obviously rescued before he hit the ground below. ‘I won’t ask again, Spiral - release the girl, now!’ Storm calls out. Spiral tells Ginny to stay close, and shouts ‘Go #$%& yourself, Weather Witch!’ to Storm. ‘I see how it is’ Storm replies, and asks Puck if he is ready. Lightning crackles behind Storm, as Puck replies that he was born ready, ‘Saskatchewan steel, coming through!’ Puck calls out as he drops, full-force towards Spiral.
At the same moment: ‘Hey!’ Betsy calls out, still not in possession of her sword. ‘How are you touching my sword?’ she exclaims as it is tossed about through the night clubbers. She leaps towards her sword while having her psychic-knife ready, which is the weaponized expression of her power. If she slid it into one’s skull, their brain would experience a hard restart. She shoves her psi-knife into the skulls of two men, and warns the other night clubbers that she will fry them all. Even though Betsy vowed not to take another life, the shurayuki still called to her. She grabs her sword, it is the only thing in her life that hadn’t let her down in the past six months.
On the rooftop, ‘Oh, hell no -’ Puck grumbles as he sees Spiral wave her hands about, so Storm fires a beam of ice towards Spiral - but too late, as Spiral vanishes, and before Puck hit’s the ground, the ice beam strikes him, slamming him into a higher part of the building than the roof. ‘Dammit! We were too slow’ Storm remarks, before telling Judd that she is sorry about the crash landing. ‘Tell that to my longus capitis’ Puck replies, rubbing the back of his neck.
Back on the dance floor, all of the night clubbers have been freed from Ginny’s mind control. ‘Now - which one of you called me a filthy #$%&?’ Betsy calls out. ‘What’s going on?’ someone asks, while another complains about their head.
Meanwhile, in an aircraft hovering over the Szechenyi Chain Bridge over the River Danube in Budapest, Hungary, Fantomex tells Cluster that she intoxicates him, and that he wanted to show the most beautiful city in the world to the most beautiful woman in the world. ‘And I only had to hijack one ship to do it’ he adds, while EVA is at the controls, and some security officers are tied up. Fantomex points out that since their main course of seared foie gras with soup dumplings is finished, he has something for her. They sit at a table, and Fantomex remarks that he knows it is not Valentine’s Day, but that this is a small token of his passion for Cluster.
Opening a small box, Cluster gasps ‘Oh, Fantomex, you got me - toothbrushes?’ and holding the box, three toothbrushes can be seen, two of them identified as belonging to President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II. ‘Used toothbrushes’ Fantomex points out. Cluster gasps and narrows her eyes, ‘Fantomex! How romantic! You stole these for me?’ she asks. An ice sculpture of a swan is placed nearby, and Fantomex tells Cluster not to ask him what he replaced them with. ‘It was worth it just to see you smile with your eyes’ he adds. Cluster then ask Fantomex if he misses Betsy. Fantomex remains silent, before replying ‘No’. But Cluster announces that she does, and reveals that Dark Fantomex does, too. ‘We need to find her, for her own protection’ Cluster suggests, adding that Betsy isn’t safe out there.
At that moment, music blares inside Betsy’s hovercraft as she and Puck are seated in it and speed down a street. ‘Where did you get this sexy machine, anyway?’ Puck inquires. ‘A thief stole it for me’ Betsy reveals. ‘Admit it - you won’t let me drive it because I’m short’ Puck asks. ‘No, I won’t let you drive because you’re reckless’ Betsy explains. ‘Reckless? I’m the one who stealthily maintained cover for ten days. You couldn’t take two minutes in that joint before boiling over’ Puck points out, before asking Betsy ‘So… what’d she do to you, anyway?’ Betsy’s mind wanders back to being Spiral’s prisoner, while Puck continues in his questioning: ‘- your nude pix on the internet? Piss in your hair dye? Steal your third arm?’ but Betsy ignores him, and tells him to be quiet, as she is speaking with Storm.
‘Please tell me you found something so I don’t have to talk to this creep anymore?’ Betsy telepathically asks Ororo. Hovering above the city, Ororo replies that she has found nothing, but points out that before, when Spiral felt threatened, she only teleported to the roof, so her powers must be limited - she must be close. Storm then informs Psylocke that the girl in the vault is a new mutant. Psylocke tells Storm that she knows, as she saw her in the heads of those junkies at the club, as she was psychically influencing their behavior. Betsy adds that the girl’s astral form was exceptionally radiant. Betsy starts to scan for the avatar, and finds it. ‘Don’t touch my radio -’ Betsy scolds Puck, who had changed the music. ‘I’m innocent, yer honor!’ Puck exclaims.
Elsewhere, in a rundown part of town, some locals look up at an apartment building as Spiral’s voice can be heard shouting ‘Where is it, where is it?’ as she searches through some sort of abandoned laboratory. ‘Here it is! Had to leave the other one at the club’ Spiral exclaims as she places a wristband on Ginny’s arm, ‘There. Now you’re hidden again’ she tells the girl. ‘I don’t know how they found us. I thought I was careful, I thought that place was shielded’ Spiral explains, before telling Ginny that they are home now, that everything is okay. ‘You’ve got your bracelet back, no one can find us’ she assures her. ‘Not Cyclops and his Xavier Kill Crew, not Wolverine and his Brainwash School and definitely not that purple-haired #$%& -’ Spiral declares, but a voice calls out ‘Wrong’.
Spiral turns around to see Betsy, Judd and Storm in the room. ‘You’re going to have to be better than that to hide from a telepath, you low-rent ninja’ Betsy suggests, while Storm announces that they are taking the girl, as she needs their help. ‘Speak for yourself. I’m here for a rematch’ Judd boasts. ‘She needs your help?’ Spiral asks, surprised, before stating that they were doing just fine on their own, that they don’t need anything from them Besides, I know what your help looks like. Leave us alone!’ Spiral declares, when suddenly, an explosion ripples through the lab, sending Betsy, Storm, Judd and Spiral backwards - and Bishop appears, and he roars at them all with a great fury.
‘Oh my God - Bishop? Is that really you? Did you just growl at us?’ Betsy calls out. A wide-eyed Storm looks shocked, ‘Goddess - my friend, where have you been?’ Storm asks. Spiral tells Ginny to run, while Judd frowns at Bishop and remarks ‘That guy don’t look so good. Ladies, maybe we should -’, but Bishop interrupts, ‘Greetings from the future. I’m here for the girl who shines like an angel’ Bishop explains, before firing a powerful surge of energy which knocks everyone backwards - except for Betsy who manages to lunge forward, and her psi-knife ready asks ‘Your mind - what are you?’ But, before she can shove her psi-knife into Bishop’s head, he grabs her by her wrist and slams her to the ground. ‘You have no idea what I am now’ Bishop tells Betsy, while an avatar of a flaming bear surrounds him, and roars….
