Detroit, Michigan, several jeeps and trucks speed down a deserted street. They all have “Someday” printed on the side of the vehicles. Inside one of them, a passenger remarks '- put six guys into intensive care... another two into the morgue'. Someone in one of the trucks says 'It's not like we're doing anything wrong. These people... they want our help, right? They paid for out services!' He adds that they aren't hurting anybody, to which the driver declares that he doesn't care. 'You hear things, y'know? About R&D... crazy stuff. But that's not my department... not my -' he adds, when suddenly, the truck is lifted into the air, as Magneto makes his entrance.
He introduces himself, but tells the men in the vehicles that he assumes they already know who he is, and why he is here. 'Your employers... Someday Enterprises... have drawn my ire'. He announces that he is claiming these vehicles, and their cargo, as his own. Magneto, whose real name is Max Eisenhardt, but who is most commonly called Erik Lehnsherr, grits his teeth and tells the men to pray that he does not also claim their miserable lives.
A door to one of the vehicles opens, and a man inside falls from it. Other Someday Enterprises employees start to open fire at Magneto, who easily throws up a force field around himself. 'Perhaps you do not know me' he remarks. 'Otherwise, you would have realized your weapons are useless against me...' he points out, as the bullets are sent flying back to the person who fired them striking them. '...and that my warnings are sincere' Magneto declares, warning them not to make him repeat himself.
'He's gonna kill us! All units! Push him back! He might be a tough sonovabitch, but he's just one man!' one of the drivers in a jeep still on the ground radios to the other vehicles, but suddenly: 'BOO!' snarls Victor “Sabretooth” Creed as he lands on the front of the vehicle, startling the wide-eyed driver. Creed then shoves his fist through the windscreen, and his claws reach out to grab the driver – but stop an inch from his face. The driver is petrified, and Creed tells him that there was a time he would have scooped his brains out before he even had the chance to soil his britches. Creed gets off the jeep and starts to walk away, 'Lucky for you, I'm the kinder, gentler Sabretooth. Not so lucky or my heightened sense of smell. Oof' Creed remarks, while the driver covers his face with one of his hands.
'Toilet humor. Somehow appropriate coming from someone with your pedigree, Creed. I wonder... as these poor fools are getting trounced... do they still appreciate your everyman wit... or are they more enamored by my sheer awesomeness?' Monet St Croix grins as she flies above Creed, carrying one of the Someday Enterprises soldiers.
Sabretooth glances up at Monet and tells her 'Ain't nobody as impressed by you... as you are, Monet'. 'Maybe not. But can you blame me?' Monet replies as she throws the soldier down to the ground in front of Creed. 'Guess not, frail' Creed tells her. Monet scowls and warns him not to call her “frail”.
Nearby, Betsy “Psylocke” Braddock kicks one of the soldiers backwards, 'Are you two still bickering? Why not just get a room?' she asks them, before using her telepathy to enter one of the soldiers' minds. 'No – no – in my head! In my head!' he cries out. 'Why, Psylocke... do I detect a hint of jealousy?' Monet asks. 'Not hardly' Betsy replies quickly. Betsy leaps into the air, kicking another soldier back while at the same time using her sword to slice the weapon of another soldier in half. 'But if you have time to squabble... or flirt – if that's what you two are doing... then I can't be convinced we were all needed for this operation. I mean, look at this' Betsy declares. 'Talk about bloody overkill' she adds as her sword slice another weapon.
'Really? Really? Do you not understand that I'm bulletproof?' Monet calls out as two soldiers open fire at her, the bullets just falling off of her. Creed grabs one of the Someday Enterprises soldiers and offers some friendly advice: 'Stay down. With this crew, you want to walk out of here... play dead'.
Magneto uses his power to move some large metal beams, slamming them into the soldiers, 'We could have settled this peacefully...but your predictability... your eagerness to be crushed... is not without its pleasures' he remarks, before he drops the truck back to the ground, and lands nearby it himself. He touches his face and utters that he pushed himself too hard, and his powers are now overtaxed. 'Death... still pulling at me... trying to drag me back' Magneto tells himself. 'Go, man! Go! Get out of here!' the soldier in the passenger seat of the truck shouts to the driver. 'Run 'em down if you have to!' he adds, as the truck speeds into motion.
'The truck -' Magneto says to Psylocke, who tells him that she is on it. 'Connection established' Psylocke remarks as she looks to the sky, where the X-Men's jet is hovering. 'I'll never get used to it... so vast... so labyrinthine... so empty. There's really nothing left, is there? He's just a hunter... a predator drone' Psylocke remarks, as from the jet, something strikes downwards, and several shards are fired at the truck's windscreen, which shatters. 'Archangel is a go!' Psylocke reports as the solemn Archangel flies up away from the truck, which explodes.
Betsy hangs her head as she uses her telepathy to reach out to Warren Worthington III, 'Warren. Please... if you're in there... give me something'. She looks up as he comes to a halt, hovering nearby, he stares blankly back at her. '... a twitch... a wink... one of those infuriating half-smirks of yours... any sign to let me know you hear me when I say – I'm sorry'- But she gets no response.
Sabretooth and Monet approach the damaged truck, and Sabretooth remarks that Betsy is dancing across a minefield, spending too much time trying to get inside the Angel's head. 'You'd think you of all people could appreciate a soft spot for the dormant killer, Creed' Monet points out. 'You got something you want to say, M?' Creed replies. Monet smiles and tells him not to let his mane get all bristly. 'I'm not trying to start a fight. Not yet, anyway. I just can't help playing with my food' Monet grins.
A soldier emerges from the wreckage of the truck and starts to crawl away. '...weren't hurting anyone... we're a public service... they wanted our help' he claims. 'Who... the hell... who do you think you are?' he asks, turning, to see Magneto! Monet! Archangel! Psylocke! Sabretooth! Standing amongst the wreckage of the trucks. 'Take a nap' Psylocke tells the Someday Enterprises employee, taking him out with a psychic surge.
'Now. Unless anyone has an objection...' Magneto begins as he uses his power to rip the back door off one of the trucks, and pull several capsules from it. 'Look at them... these mutants... placing themselves in suspended animation... so blissfully unaware of what is happening around them... so damnably selfish' he declares. The capsules are placed on the ground and Creed goes over to one of them, 'They're scared, Erik. Scared of the big, bad world. Scared of the Terrigen Mists' he points out. But Magneto declares that they are fools. 'They world is out to get them... to destroy them. What else is new?' He opens the capsules with a magnetic pulse, and a woman emerges from one of them, 'Where am I? How much time has passed? Can we breathe? Are the mists gone?' she asks. 'Is it safe?' she exclaims, collapsing to the ground. She covers her face with her hands as Betsy goes over to her and remarks 'I'm afraid not'.
Creed sniffs the air and picks up a scent of blood. 'Somebody's hurt' he tells the others. 'Over here!' Monet calls out as she finds one of the mutants with a shard of shrapnel through their chest. 'He's bleeding out – fast' Monet reports. Betsy announces that there is a chance to save him, as one of these mutants is a healer.
'Going somewhere?' Monet asks as she appears in front of a bearded man who started to walk away from the site. 'You wouldn't just leave your fellow mutant to choke to death on his own blood... would you?' Monet enquires. The man hangs his head and remarks that he never wanted this – he never wanted to be a mutant. 'I just... wanted to dream'. 'Funny. I don't remember asking for your sad little life story. But whatever. Wakey wakey' Monet mocks. The healer walks over to the capsule with the injured mutant, 'I paid good money... everything I had... just to dream' he mutters as he uses his power to safely restore the other mutant, who wakes, wide-eyed and gasping.
The healer gets up, 'I did it, all right? Now... can you just let us go back to sleep? Please? Until all this... horror has passed?' 'Horror?' Magneto enquires, stating that Homo Superior is at a crossroads, teetering on the edge of a blade. He reminds the mutants that the Terrigen Mists sweeping across the world are toxic to their kind, and with no new mutants manifesting, this pathetic lot counts among those who should be seen out there in the world. 'And the X-Men... those who would have protected you... have gone into hiding' Magneto remarks, telling the mutants that they have no idea what true horror looks like. 'So many others have watched it unfold... so many mutants have died with their eyes open. Why would I let you dream... when the dream is dying all around you?'
Magneto instructs the mutants to go, to leave this place and find help, or to help others like them. He warns them that if he sees them selling themselves out again, he won't care if they did it because they were afraid – instead, he will recognize them as an enemy to mutantkind, and will deal with them accordingly. With that, the rescued mutants leave, as do Magneto and his group in the jet.
Magneto pilots the jet and Betsy sits at his side. She explains to him that the Blackbird is equipped with a sophisticated autopilot, so there is no need for his hands on approach. Magneto tells her that he knows, but that piloting the ship himself gives him the illusion that he has control over something. “Control” Betsy repeats. 'The way you cut those mutants... those sleepers... loose... without any hope for the future or any notion of how to move forward' she points out, telling Erik that she would hate to think that he is using them as some sort of control group to monitor the chances of mutants surviving on their own, and reminds him that she is here because she wants to help their people. 'And we are' Magneto assures Betsy, explaining that Someday Enterprises is capitalizing on desperation, taking payment from frightened mutants, putting them in stasis so they can bypass the tribulations and awaken in a better world. 'But we both know that someday is lying...and that they have ulterior motives. Just as we both know... why you're really here, Elizabeth' Magneto remarks, as Archangel stands at the back of the jet.
Betsy goes silent, before asking Magneto to let her take the wheel for a bit. 'Be my guest. We all have our illusions' Magneto points out as Betsy takes the controls of the Blackbird, and tells Erik that it might be nice to have a healer in their ranks, and that with the growing unrest, with the Terrigen Mists, maybe they could have used a safe haven. Magneto looks pensive, and tells Betsy that more than once he has tricked himself into believing that was possible – but such a thing is a fantasy.
Back in the city, several desperate people have gathered under a freeway bridge. A woman coughs, as her son sits beside her and tells her that it is all right. 'You're gonna be all right. I'll take care of you' the boy utters. 'Maybe... maybe I can help' a voice states, and the boy looks up to see the bearded mutant healer standing over him. The healer kneels next to the woman and tells her to relax, as this will only take a minute. His power flows over, and the woman looks surprised, 'I feel... the heaviness... in my chest... my throat... it's gone!' she utters, before hugging her son and asking the healer how he did that. 'Thank you so -' she begins, but the healer tells her that she doesn't need to thank him. 'I just -' he begins, before suddenly, he is shot in the head and collapses.
'Sorry for the mess. But this guy... your savior... he had to die. And – before you go there – this wasn't an act of hate. Not totally. I got no problem with him being a mutant' the shooter announces.
Stepping into view and the hooded man has green skin and large teeth. He carries a large weapon and his clothing is covered in ammo and assorted pouches. He is flanked by a fiery-blue skeletal man, a red-skinned man with a long tail, and large hulking figure. They are Gauntlet! Deadbolt! Spyne! Tusk! Collectively known as the Dark Riders, Gauntlet declares that this problem is this mutant is – or was – a healer, an affront to nature, a spit wad in the face of natural selection. 'Only the strong are meant to survive... and mutants had their chance' he points out, declaring that it is all right, though, because the Dark Riders are here – and they are going to set things right!
