Boh-zan-ee, located on the outer spiral arm of the Cladeen galaxy. A lush and verdant jungle paradise, the planet’s economy relies mainly on interstellar commerce with a heavy emphasis on tourism. Travellers regard the Briat Inn for more than just the excellent service – it is a refuge, a place where one can move about and still maintain some modicum of anonymity. Suddenly, a Skrull gets severely beaten. He asks a hooded figure not to hurt him anymore. Angrily, the woman orders him to tell her what he knows or pain will be the least of his worries. Where is Jornik? The Skrull shows her a hologram, telling her he went to Earth.
Madripoor:
On the river, two scavengers in boats, Chow-yun and Woo, are arguing over who has the right to an object they both saw. Their battle is interrupted, as the members of X-Factor suddenly appear in midair - thanks to the newfound teleportation power of Legion - and fall into the fetid water.
They climb out, trying to get their bearings and wondering since when Legion can teleport others. They’ve got to get back to Israel, Havok announces. Lorna wonders where they are and Forge guesses this would be Wolverine’s old stomping grounds, Madripoor. Legion sent then halfway around the world, Havok exclaims. The spaceship they are standing on probably came from farther than that, Strong Guy remarks.
Suddenly, the ship upheaves and out comes a rocky monster with huge tusks. Half the team jumps on one of the scavengers’ boats and Havok tells Guido to stabilize it, so he can fire off a plasma blast. Why does he get the feeling they just drew straws and he lost, Guido mutters, as the monster roars at him.
Meanwhile, on a nearby bridge, a mysterious man thinks that this has all become too chaotic. With it on the loose, his presence here is compromised. This will surely send up a signal to her.
Havok orders Guido to get out there. Guido disobeys, shouting he can handle this. He has experience with E.T.s. The stranger recognizes Guido and fears that she has already found him. ‘Umm, welcome. Live long and prosper?’ Guido attempts to calm the alien.
Annoyed, it belts him instead. Guido lunges at him, but the creature’s eyes glow and, a moment later, it releases electric energy at Guido, who feebly jokes that he’ll take massive amounts of electricity for a thousand, Alex.
The stranger in the trench coat stands above him, demanding where she is. ‘Who?’ Guido asks, before adding, if he knows him. No, but he knows Guido, the stranger replies. Perhaps they need to do this some place less public. He beats Guido unconscious with his cane and teleports away with him. He finds that there is a glitch in his image inducer, as he can no longer maintain the façade.
On a commercial airliner en route to Paris, Mystique thinks about her recent encounter with Legion. Did he truly believe that his attempts to dissuade her would make her abandon her plans of revenge, she wonders. Drawing her into his twisted mind only intensified her hatred for him. He hands tremble, as she wonders whether that message from Destiny he gave her was real. A flight attendant addresses her, asking if she called. Mystique coldly demands an onboard-phone. She has to make some arrangements before they land.
Back in Madripoor, Rahne informs Forge that she cannot find Guido’s scent anywhere. She wonders if Legion transported him back. Forge doubts it. Legion clearly wanted them out of there. Rahne warns him to look out, as they are suddenly almost hit by electricity, courtesy of the monster, which Lorna finally seems to have caught in a magnetic force bubble.
However, suddenly, the monster drains her field. She falls and, panicked, Havok blasts away at the monster. Moments later, the creature releases its electrical energies into the water of the canal, affording Havok no time to react, as his body spasms and contorts with the incredible energy running though it.
Not far away, the mystery stranger tells the shackled Guido how nice it is to see him conscious again. Again he asks where she is. She is in New York harbor holding a torch, Guido retorts. He has no idea what the man is talking about. Now could he please let him go? The stranger hurts him again with the energy in his stick. Guido struggles against his shackles and the stranger informs him that his hands are bound by a Bretilian Bondar, a gelatinous organism which will continue to contract his arms the more struggles.
Suddenly, the image inducer frizzes out and the stranger is revealed in his true form: a four-armed, small, light blue alien, with a huge walrus-like moustache. He is an alien, Guido exclaims, suddenly having a good idea who he’s running from. As if on cue, Lila Cheney teleports in, threatening the alien she calls “Jornick”.
However, she is surprised, as she sees Guido. Jornik tries to attack her from behind and she angrily trains her weapon on him, announcing that she’s spent the last three and a half weeks scouring four different solar systems tracking him down. Guido asks her to please make the guy take off the handcuffs before she aces him. Lila recognizes the tech and counteracts it with an ice pellet from Vonnegut 9, which makes the Bodar brittle and allows Guido to break it.
So what’s this all about, he asks. Some music critic who didn’t like Lila’s last album? Nothing so pedestrian, Lila begins to explain, as she trains her weapon on the alien. He protests. He robbed her, he boasts. He ripped off the great Lila Cheney. Jornik explains how he ripped off he greatest thief in the known universe!
Pissed, Lila threatens that she will be ripping something out of him in a moment if he doesn’t tell her where it is now. Muttering how much this heist has cost him, Guido mentions the rock monster X-Factor is fighting. Rock monster? Lila asks. Jornik broke open the Urg egg, didn’t he? It was one of three known in existence and it was supposed to lie dormant for another millennium before hatching. Guide reminds her that he should be heading back there now and Lila tells him not to worry about it. Guido accuses her of being selfish, while Lila digs through Jordik’s huge stash of stolen loot. She can’t find the music box, she finally states somberly, the one thing that could have saved her life.
She lunges at Jornik and grabs him by the throat. ‘Where is it, you Muppet?!’ she shouts. It was just a piece of junk, he rasps. When he sold the Daedalus wing, he threw it in with the deal. Lila angrily starts screaming again until Guido separates them, telling her if it was something she stole in the first place, she has nor right to throw a fit now. But she didn’t steal it, Lila defends herself. It was given to her for safekeeping. Now, they need it back or an entire star system goes to war. So they find out whom Jornik sold it to and find it, he suggests. They need it today, Lila reveals. And now they’ll come looking for her. What can she do?
Meanwhile, out in the canal, Lorna saves Alex, who is still a little groggy. Any sign of Guido? he asks. Rahne wonders aloud that the monster doesn’t seem to have any goal. Forge agrees. It seems its only purpose is outright destruction.
Elsewhere, Lila teleports herself and those around her to her Dyson Sphere - her home away from home - dumps Jornik there and along with Guido teleports to X-Factor’s side. Seeing Lila, Alex realizes that this wasn’t a coincidence Legion sent them here. He must have known Lila and her alien invasion would kept them occupied while he escaped. Nice of him to go off with his old girlfriend while they were getting trounced by that rock thing, Rahne snaps at Guido. Guido turns to Lila: she promised she could take care of this thing.
Lila asks Lorna to distract the Urg. Lorna does so, hoping it won’t mess with her magnetic field again. Lila orders Guido to throw her at the monster. And as she touches it, they both disappear. Lila reappears a moment later, explaining that she took the creature back to is native world, adding that she stole the Urg egg from there originally, so it’s only fair she gives it back, right?
‘Lila Cheney,’ a voice suddenly shouts and Lila announces that they’ve found her. A huge space ship appears above Madripoor. What has she done, Guido exclaims and Lila states that they are in big trouble now.
