Ann Arbor, Michigan
A pro mutant rally is held and the speaker reminds the other protesters how the last time he was on this stage the X-Men themselves were here and were attacked. He looked into Scott Summers’ eyes and saw a hero.
Many in the crowd agree, whereas others protest the school was attacked because of Summers, and he is a terrorist. They stand with their mutant brothers! the speaker shouts.
Brothers? an enraged Magneto shouts. They think they are brothers? That they feel mutants’ pain? Their pain comes from the humans! He levitates a car and tosses it into the crowd. When his people suffer, none of them do anything! They want to be like mutants? Metal objects attack the crowd Magneto will show them!
Reality:
Magneto snaps out of his little power fantasy, for that is all it was, and the speech continues.
He called her, SHIELD agent Dazzler addresses him. Without looking at her, he asks why this campus isn’t a crime scene. It was, she replies. Now it’s this. He points out, if SHIELD agents had been under attack here, this place would be under a dome and agents would comb through everything. She’s sure that was done, she smiles. Don’t get snippy.
She asks what he wants, calling him Erik. Magneto, he corrects her and reveals he needs information. About the mystery Sentinels that keep attacking the X-Men, she figures correctly. If she had any information, he’d be the first to know. Or… the X-Men could cooperate with the investigation and tell her what they know.
He doesn’t believe her, he replies tight-lipped. He thinks she wants innocent mutants and humans to be attacked? He thinks she wants the Jean Grey School to be under siege? Dazzler points out. He doesn’t know what her agenda is anymore. Funny, she muses, that’s what a lot of people say about him. No One knows what his goal is anymore. At least when he was a bat-poop terrorist he was very focused (Killing everyone who didn’t agree with him).There is one theory about him…
Up front officials try to silence the speaker.
… that the death of Charles Xavier messed him up, Dazzler continues. Everybody was focusing on how damaging it was to Scott Summers. Nobody paid attention to him. Either way, she must say this new quieter him is unnerving. He is quiet because the old ways don’t work anymore. His old ways didn’t work that well in the old days, she points out.
In front, the speaker tries to read a letter to the president about mutant persecution.
Dazzler continues. She wonders whether his loss of power is psychosomatic. He glares. What, is he saying he’s better now? Can he throw a tank around again? No, but he can throw a knife or a bullet. So she has nothing for him.
Has he heard about what’s going on in Madripoor? she asks suddenly. He’s been busy, he replies. What? There’s some low rumbling about mutants getting up there. Someone is trying to turn the entire island into a mutant safe harbor. Sort of like Genosha meets Las Vegas. Somewhere where mutants can be mutants. He should check it out. Might be exactly what he’s been looking for. He thought HYDRA owned Madripoor? Magneto interjects. Things change, she smiles.
On the stage, a mutant hater is trying to make his feelings known. And Dazzler leaves.
Sometime later, Magneto, incognito with a beard, has made his way to Madripoor. He looks at the mutants leaving openly and in peace. He follows some young mutant boys who go to a doorway where a person gives them a fluid in a syringe. Excited, they leave, shouting ‘party time.’
Magneto enters the building, a bar. Vodka, he demands of the barkeeper and remarks this is by far the most colorful hole in the wall he’s been to. Friendly as well, he smirks when the horned mutant just glares. He finishes his drink and peeks into a backroom. Immediately, the barkeeper and the former Morlock Erg question him what he is looking for. The mutant in charge, he replies.
The barkeeper hits him with a bat and Erg figures he is CIA or SHIELD. Someone puts a bag over Magneto’s head. Erg orders for him to be gutted and thrown out.
Magneto struggles physically and with his magnetic power. He levitates a gun and hits the others with it. When Erg threatens him with a knife, the gun levitates to his temple and his knife rises to his throat.
Magneto repeats the question who he works for. He works for him now, Erg realizes. Magneto asks where they get the MGH from. HYDRA tower, he is told, but it isn’t called that anymore. He doesn’t know what it’s called now. Magneto leaves after injuring him with the knife.
Outside on the street, he is accosted by the Blob (fully powered), who gushes about Magneto’s presence here. It makes him feel right to be here as well. He welcomes Magneto to the new mutant utopia. Did he do this? Magneto asks. Blob is flattered and promises to lead him to the people in charge.
He leads him to former HYDRA tower atop the roof and Blob prattles, asking if he remember these guys. He refers to the new Silver Samurai and Sabretooth, who shakes Magneto’s hand. Is this all him? Magneto asks. Nah, but the new queen of Madripoor has arrived, he is told as a helicopter lands and a smiling Dazzler steps out.
Annoyed, Magneto asks why she sent him halfway around the world. With a smirk “Dazzler” reveals her true form – Mystique. Magneto asks where Alison Blaire is. She’s fine. She’s resting, Mystique claims. When she made herself mutant SHIELD liaison, how could Mystique not take full advantage of that? So she replaced her, Magneto continues. She’s been working for SHIELD the whole time. Not the whole time, Raven corrects him, and SHIELD is working for her. They just don’t know it. Or she should say for them. This is as much for him as her. She arranged for SHIELD to keep sending her here and she claimed something was going on and she used it to set up what she believes was their ultimate goals since they were born. From here, they can build what they always wanted to build – a place where mutants can just be. They are inviting him to that because, at one time or the other, he showed them all the same kindness. And it wouldn’t be the same without him.
Mutant Growth Hormone, Magneto states. Very profitable, Raven points out. It’s on the streets down there, he continues. That was in play before they came here, Raven continues, but it pays for all this. Where are they getting it from? He asks. She notes he doesn’t look happy.
Xavier had a dream of peaceful coexistence. He dreamed to shepherd their people into their new role as dominant species. So what the hell is this? he shouts. What is this nightmare?
Metal objects around him begin to float. She tells him to let go of those things he’s been carrying around. Look how far he’s fallen. He has all but given up on his dreams! He lives in hiding with Scott Summers, who will get them all killed like Xavier!
She screams when Magneto forces the Silver Samurai’s blade to impale her. He calls them all traitors to their people.
Sabretooth tries to jump him and Magneto fires the bullets in the air at him and the others, then walks toward the helicopter which he uses. When he is airborne, the Blob shouts after him why he did this. In response, Magneto makes him fall through the roof.
At the New Xavier School, Cyclops wonders where Magneto is. Kitty too is worried. Where does he go when he’s not here? Emma tells her Scott doesn’t know. He’s never been gone this long before, Scott muses. He’ll come back, Emma shrugs. Where else is he going to go?
