Atlanta
It’s not been one of David Bond’s best days as he follows Karen, his up until very recent girlfriend, out the front door of his place and toward her car. She’s carrying a box containing some of the stuff that she kept at David’s. He can’t believe that she broke up with him via text. Karen claims she was trying to be polite.
When David brings up that they had been dating for six months, Karen cuts him off. She tells him they must have different definitions of dating. He asks if she was just never going to talk to him again. “And I guarantee that if I hadn’t texted you, you wouldn’t even have noticed for two weeks!” she snarks back.
Karen turns back around and tosses the box into the passenger seat of her car. David tries blaming his lack of effort on his deadlines at work. Karen cuts him off again and gives him some advice, when his next girlfriend calls him he should call her back.
David walks over to the car and leans over to look in through the passenger window. His ex is sitting in the driver’s seat, eyes closed in frustration, maybe even sadness. David apologizes and Karen knows he means it, but says with both of them being 30 years old they know well enough not to drag this broken relationship out.
The car is put into reverse and begins its backward descent down the driveway. Karen leaves David with some words to grow on, telling him there’s a lot to like about him, but she doesn’t have it in her to put in that much work. David pleads with her not to go, then says it again as she backs onto the street and puts her car into drive.
This is all too stressful for David right now. He runs his hands through his hair and yells out “Stop!” in frustration. And just like that the car his ex-girlfriend is driving stops. “Please, just come back here… and talk to me,” he continues, and sure enough the car burns rubber heading back to David.
David thanks Karen, not realizing what’s really happening, that he’s just displayed his mutant power. His ex is freaked out and starts cursing. She puts the pedal to the metal and a confused David yells for her to come back. Sure enough, she does, but it’s the car doing it, not her.
When the car backs into the driveway Karen is tossed from the driver’s seat and onto the pavement. Finally, David realizes something’s not right. His former flame is asking him what he’s doing. He doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Karen asks him what he did to her car. He still has no idea what she’s talking about and asks her to get her car off his lawn.
A weird feeling creeps over David. He’s confused and yells at Karen to, once again, get her car off his lawn. Then, with nobody inside it, the car moves off onto the street and honks its horn for good measure. Karen asks if he’s doing that, but David has no idea how he could.
Limbo
The X-Men and their students have just recently been transported against their will to Limbo, Magik’s supposed domain. Everyone wants out of there, newly christened and veteran mutants alike. All Illyana, in the Darkchilde persona, can do is apologize. She tells them they were brought to Limbo to punish her. “Dormammu!” she yells in anger.
And just like that Dormammu appears in all his fiery glory. He tells Illyana there’s no need to yell, that they’re in Limbo at his discretion. Triage stares up at the giant fiend, scared, hoping the whole thing is just another Danger Room session. Benjamin Deeds happily agrees with his take on reality.
Both Cyclops and Magneto question Dormammu as to why he brought them all to Limbo since they have no problems with him. Dormammu agrees, but says they have a poor choice in friends. The Darkchilde tells him he’s gone too far and leaps with her soulsword cocked back. She cuts at him screaming, “Die, demon!”
Cyclops orders everyone to fall back, to form up back to back. The kids finally face facts and realize this is the real deal.
Dormammu seems unaffected by Illyana’s attack. He promises to kill her and her friends as he doesn’t want them alerting Dr. Strange to his presence. “You bore me!” Cyke yells before taking off his mask and letting the full might of his optic power strike at Dormammu.
The powerful ruler of the Dark Dimension is caught off guard by Cyclops’ fury. He is in obvious pain so Scott lets it all loose, to the point that it starts hurting him. His power exhausted, he falls back into Emma’s arms, somewhat lightheaded from the effort. The veterans once again tell Illyana to get them out of there.
Before doing so, Illyana tells them that once they are back on Earth they need to contact Dr. Strange and tell him Dormammu is trying to take over Limbo and trying to use her to do it. Unfortunately, Dormammu’s not about to let that happen. Somehow, he gains control over her and, lifting her body into the air, brings her over to him.
Illyana is still free to speak and tells Dormammu she’s going to kill him. Angel is about to take off to grab her, but Emma warns him to stay put. The Cuckoos peek inside Illyana’s mind and find it controlled by Dormammu, a bloody mess.
Dormammu turns Illyana toward her teammates. He wants her to watch them die. Mindless Ones suddenly appear seemingly everywhere. It’s at this point Tempus says she quits the X-Men, her sentiments followed immediately by Fabio.
San Diego Airport
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are hard at work rummaging through Sentinel debris, running scans and inspecting the wreckage in an airport hangar. Director Hill and Agent Coulson are also on scene and it’s Hill who admits the whole mutant thing is too much for her. With Cyclops calling for a mutant revolution, Magneto selling him out, new mutants popping up all over the world and the mysterious Sentinels appearing out of nowhere, it’s getting to be very stressful.
Hill turns to face Coulson and asks if he’s ever heard of a secret part of S.H.I.E.L.D. that has an anti-mutant agenda. Before he can respond she half-jokingly says that if that’s true she’s going to be really bummed.
Coulson suggests she’s being a bit paranoid, though it’s within her job mandate. Maria asks who else could have the wherewithal to do it. Coulson doesn’t think it will be too hard to trace, to which Director Hill agrees. She then says she wants the Sentinel dusted, tested, taken apart, reverse engineered and whatever else they can do. She wants to know where it came from and who sent it. She also wants to know how whoever sent it knew Scott Summers’ X-Men were going to show up just as a little boy became a little mutant boy.
After taking that all in, Coulson says they should create a special S.H.I.E.L.D. mutant task force, one headed by an expert. This piques Director Hill’s interests and she wonders who should be their mutant expert. Coulson asks if she’s referring to Magneto, but that is the furthest option from her mind. Coulson argues that he came to them, which just proves Maria’s point. She walks toward the hangar exit telling Coulson to get her a list of names, to surprise her.
Limbo
The X-Men are formed up in a circle with the new, untrained students sort of bunched in the middle. The Cuckoos try to psychically engage the Mindless Ones not knowing what they’re called, thus not realizing they, in fact, have no minds. Since their psychic attack proves fruitless one of them says they need to go diamond. Warren and Fabio hear this and both can’t believe they chose to come to this school.
Also hearing their impromptu plan is Emma, who negates their order. She tells them to get out of diamond and to psychically manipulate the entire team. One of the Cuckoos quickly objects, saying she told them to never do such a thing. Emma tells them they need to make them not afraid, to make them insanely brave. “Make them fighters! Make them barbarians!” she yells.
The Cuckoos acquiesce and suddenly everyone is gung ho. Even Fabio yells out, “X-Men Assemble!” before quietly contemplating whether that’s a real thing. Before the kids get too far in their charge Magneto orders them to hold back and wait for the creatures to come to them. He then manipulates dozens of nails from a pocket on his belt and flings them at the Mindless Ones.
Dormammu begins mocking the immobile Illyana. He tells her to watch as her friends get ripped apart. However, things don’t go as Dormammu planned. With the Cuckoo’s mental urging the neo X-Men are taking it to his army. Each mutant is doing whatever they can to stem the tide of Mindless Ones. At first it seems like they’re going to emerge victorious, but then the sheer number of the enemy begins to overwhelm them.
secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base
Director Hill is interviewing a candidate to head the new mutant task force. During the interview she candidly explains she doesn’t know what to expect from them day to day. She doesn’t know what they plan to do or what they want. What Hill does know is they want to be treated equally, which she agrees with. She is treating them exactly the way she would treat anyone who puts the world in constant tumult.
More specifically, the director continues, she wants to understand Scott Summers, what his plans are, who is attacking him and how they know where he’s going to be. Also driving her crazy is not knowing what this “mutant revolution” he is planning is all about, if it’s even real or just posturing.
The interviewee says she finds his close relationship to Magneto troubling, to which Hill agrees. The director is worried how far Cyclops is willing to go with Magneto whispering in his ear.
All of this brings Director Hill to why she is interviewing for this position. She believes the leader of the mutant task force will be her solution. While they have Captain America putting a public face on the mutant human relationships she needs an agent who is a mutant, and who has been part of these X-Men, someone who can figure out the good guys from the bad and can help them prevent any further incidents they can’t come back from.
The interviewee sitting across the table is none other than Dazzler. With a child-like smile she asks if that makes her an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. If she’s saying “yes,” Maria Hill agrees that it does. “Dazzler, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Alison says out loud, liking the sound of it. “Yeah, I could do that.”
