Illyana Rasputin sits in her room in front of a chessboard. She is playing white. She looks at her cell phone on which she has received her opponent’s move. She figures it’s not about winning, because she never wins, not at chess. The point is to keep from losing as long as possible.
Idie looks into her room and informs her they have action. Cyclops says it’s the Upstarts. New broadcast just went live!
Said broadcast shows a grinning Trevor Fitzroy addressing the viewers: They hate mutants, don’t they? He can’t say he blames them. Mutants killing humans. Humans killing mutants. And then Krakoa. What was that all about? But that causes a problem: he, Trevor Fitzroy, is a mutant. And he wants to be loved, he wants to be adored!
He pretends to think hard. With the current mutant contagion, mutants are more hated than ever. Then he “chances” on the solution that he and his Upstarts are going to kill those new mutants for the audience and stream it live to their phones. They’d like that, wouldn’t they? No, they’d love it. And they’d like and subscribe.
Cyclops turns to the X-Men present: Juggernaut, Magik, Temper and Beast. He explains that the Upstarts just went live, but they messed up. They managed to identify the landmarks - the striketeam is going to Detroit. He explains they are shorthanded, as Quentin and Psylocke are in the middle of a psychic rescue, so he has to stay at the base, in case anything happens. Which means Magik is running the mission with Temper and Juggernaut. Three X-Men, no psychics, no Marauder… A bit lean, Illyana observes. Cyclops decides that Beast will be going with them.
Beast protests, noting his work here precludes his going into the field, or has he forgotten how important his project is? He has not, Scott assures him, but he will not have another mutant’s murder livestreamed. Beast assures him he cares, but his work… Can wait, Scott insists. Has he forgotten what happened to Magneto? Beat reminds him. What could happen to all of them? They are all ticking timebombs!
Illyana interrupts, noting that she is leader and he is on her team! That’s what he signed up for and if he doesn’t like it, go hide in a shanty with Rogue and her crew! X-Man up!
Scott gives her a thumbs up and Beast looks grim.
In Detroit, a woman (who now has fishlike facial features) is running for her life. A cruel Fitzroy observes she should have invested in cardio. She falls down and Fitzroy orders one of the three strange-looking Upstarts with him, Ocelot, to tear out her heart to show their viewers the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle. Killer television! the hairy Ocelot chuckles.
Cue for Magik to teleport in her team and order the Upstarts to surrender. Surrender? Fitzroy repeats disgusted. Where is the banter, the back and forth? Their audience expects better! Grimly, Magik suggests how his audience of snuff perverts will like it when she guts him! The two groups begin to fight and Fitzroy decides that’s more like it.
Magik screams in frustration when Fitzroy teleports himself away and then uses one of his portals to send magma from the 2013 Mount Etna eruption towards her.
Juggernaut runs at Ocelot, who screams for help from his teammate Orbit. Suddenly, everything turns woozy for Juggernaut and he falls.
Beast tries to guess the name of the last Upstart. Odious? Offensive? Objectionable? Orifice is the reply, as he blasts energy at Beast from his mouth. Beast dodges the blast until Orifice accidentally hits Orbit. Beast taunts that his name couldn’t have been Observant or he wouldn’t have fallen for the oldest trick.
Facing Ocelot, Juggernaut recalls they were on TV once. O-Force, right? What are they doing killing mutants? Ocelot dodges his blow and replies, sweet fame, baby. When you look like he does, you do anything for it. This goy knows what he is talking about, he refers to Beast while clawing him in the back.
Elsewhere, Magik is fighting part of an abomination from the 23rd century, which came through one of Fitzroy’s teleportation gates. Fitzroy asks if they really only rate four X-Men. And not even Cyclops? Tossing her Soulsword at him, she snaps, he isn’t worth a full team. He teleports away.
And, she adds, her plan is working well enough He took his eyes off the prize, because in the meantime Temper has spirited the mutant woman away on an iceslide. She tells her she needs to help the others. The woman asks if she is really a mutant. Temper believes so and empathizes with her. She has been put in terrible danger because of it. There can be beauty and miracles in finding out what you are. But the world is a different one for her now than it was before.
Despondent, the woman replies there isn’t a world for her. Not like this. Idie understands and hopes they can help her.
Orifice blasts Juggernaut and shouts he isn’t even a mutant. This has nothing to do with him! Juggernaut agrees but, as long as he is wearing this X on his helmet, it has everything to do with him. He is making it his business!
He moves closer, despite the blast. It ain’t a symbol, it’s a target, a crosshairs and he is wearing it right here, so anyone who wants to take their shot has to look him in the eye, so they see what’s in his eyes. What he is gonna do to them.
While Orifice becomes nervous, Beast takes out Ocelot, impatiently announcing he has important work to do.
Somewhat disappointed, Fitzroy announces, the X-Men made a mess of things, but he cut the livefeed when the tide was turning. He will clean it up in the edit. As far as the world is concerned, the Upstarts will have won this little fracas.
Is that all he cares about? Magik asks. What the world thinks? Of course, he replies. The X-Men may get off on being hated and feared, but he wants the very worst of humanity to love him… because he is the very worst of mutantkind. And he is going to give them the very worst things to see, to watch, to revel in. Because, as long as humans love him and hate them, the X-Men can’t win. With his parting shot he teleports the Upstarts away.
Later, the Upstarts’ hidden HQ:
In a lab, someone chastises Fitzroy for failing. Fitzroy retorts that their numbers are through the roof. People can’t get enough of them. He should see the views!
The other person retorts he doesn’t care about the views. If Fitzroy is that desperate for a happy brain, he can graft a dopamine pump tailored to him. Gross, Fitzroy mutters. The other person continues, noting he wanted the new mutant. Which is the whole reason he sponsors the Upstarts!
If he wants mutants, he can get him mutants, Fitzroy promises. With Krakoa gone, they are all over the place! Hell, he can have Orifice if he wants! The other person – the Sugarman – explains again he wants the new mutants. Someone has cracked the X-gene and is making mutants out of flatscans. He wants to know who and how.
Back at the Factory, Beast debriefs Cyclops: Fitzroy got away, they got the new mutant Jennifer Starkey. She was too afraid to stay in Detroit. Beast warns they are starting to run out of space.
Glob Herman interrupts bringing laksa. Cyclops agrees, they have to reclaim more of the Factory to make it liveable. How was Illyana in the field? Better than they were at her age, Beast admits. She was born for this.
Illyana returns to her quarters. She figures she has been fighting this fight all her life and that is why she knows she cannot win. She moves a figure on her chessboard, then sends the move to her opponent by phone. She decides it has never been about winning, just about keeping from losing as long as possible. That’s all they’ve got. That’s what she fights for.
Somewhere else, her brother Colossus gets her message and makes his move.
