Bishop has been blasted by the Fenris twins and lies immobile on the floor. As the other X-Men stand startled at this turn of events, Wolverine grits he should have gutted Andrea and Andreas when he had the chance. Andreas smiles that Logan shouldn’t flatter himself because, as he recalls it, the feral mutant never even got close enough. Psylocke tries to telepathically enter Bishop’s head, but doesn’t pick up any brain activity. She fears the worst.
At this, Wolverine becomes furious and attacks Fenris. However, they quickly grasp hands with each other and fire a powerful blast from their other hands which brings Logan down, shredding his uniform. Two down, four more to go, Andrea muses. Tot this, Andreas smiles to Wolverine that he’s lucky that he and his sisters aren’t interested in breaking a sweat to defeat their enemies. Wolverine admits he wasn’t expecting Fenris to pack such a punch and needs some time to recover. Storm thinks Logan should just stay down, because Fenris just activated an army of Sentinel robots!
Meanwhile in a secret base in Brooklyn…
Stryfe gives Pyro a tour around his home, which is filled with other mutants. Stryfe knows Pyro wasn’t expecting the Rtiz and says this place is still a bit less presentable than he’d like it to be. That’s okay with Pyro, since he has been at worse places than this. Still, Stryfe informs, this house isn’t their headquarters. This was merely a temporarily staging ground for their last protest. Pyro wants to know the reason why they are there then. Stryfe smiles that he’s not a fool. And, when you’re in his business, trust isn’t something you give freely. He knows Pyro is here to spy on the Mutant Liberation Front.
With all the attention suddenly pointed to him, Pyro feels a bit awkward. He warns the other mutants that he isn’t without defense. And he will if they don’t back away from him now! Stryfe asks everyone to do as he asks. He then asks Pyro to calm down and promises they won’t hurt him. When Pyro excuses him for not fully trusting him on that, Stryfe reveals he asked Pyro here for a reason. He offered membership to the MLF to the entire X-Men. He thinks having the X-Men participate in their cause would help them a great boon. They want the X-Men with them, and have nothing to hide. So, Stryfe wants Pyro to spy on them, and hopes he’s pleased at what he sees.
Outside Xavier’s, night…
Beast still sits in a tree outside the school, observing the mansion. Nick Fury contacts him over a radio headset, asking Hank what his plan is. Is he going to crash through a window screaming “I’m alive” and expect the X-Men to welcome him back with open arms? Fury doesn’t even understand why Hank is there, as this place would surely be the first place SHIELD would look for him after his escape.
Hank explains he’s looking for Storm. He’s certain she’d at least hear him out, even if she won’t believe him at first. There are things he could say to her to convince her of the truth, things only he would know. He asks Fury what he wants.
Fury asks Hank if he’s going to abandon the project now, all of a sudden, leaving hundreds of other mutants at risk. Fury knows Hank’s got a reputation for screwing up things in a big way, but he hoped Hank would have gotten over that. Hank tells Fury to stop it because he won’t be coming back. He’s done. He doesn’t even think the Legacy Virus is even real, and that Fury could have been tricking him into making it, for all he knows. Hank didn’t like the security and the seclusion. That he was being kept hidden to work on the virus. He didn’t like that Fury was tricking people into believing he was dead just so he could focus. Hank’s sure there is something else going on. It has to be and, if Fury won’t tell him about it, he’s gone. Fury’s current story simply doesn’t add up.
Fury, at the Triskelion base, promises the story adds up. Only one mutant is currently aware of the Legacy Virus and that’s Hank himself. And having him out in the world is a liability, and can’t happen. He has to come back.
Not far away from the tree in which Hank sits, SHIELD soldiers are sneaking by. The group leader reports over radio to their commander that they’re ready to move in and are ordered to do so.
Meanwhile, Fury warns Hank about his men and doesn’t want Hank to resist them. The soldiers are authorized to hurt him, but that’s the last thing Nick wants. If Hank surrenders, the soldiers will bring him in without any harm. This doesn’t have to be any more difficult than it has to be. The soldiers move closer to the three, but… Hank is already gone. And he has left the equipment they were tracking.
Inside Scott Summer’s bedroom…
Scott wakes up, realizing he isn’t alone in his room. He picks up his glasses from his nightstand and puts them on, only to find Jean standing in front of him. She remains quiet and just goes to sit on his bed, and a confused Scott asks if everything’s okay. Jean asks Scott to hold her, and he does. Jean looks sad and her eyes glow yellow.
Back at the Sentinel base…
The new X-Men are in full battle with the just activated Sentinels. Psylocke gracefully dodges a blast and asks Angel if Bishop is still breathing. As he flies Bishop out of the firezone, Angel thinks their leader is still alive. Psylocke asks Dazzler to attack the Sentinels in the same way she did before, to which she says she was already trying to do that. She tries to activate the electricity from her hands, but something is wrong. She doesn’t know how she did it last time! It’s just not working now.
Angel picks a still unconscious Bishop up and wants to fly out, but doesn’t know where the exit is. He becomes distracted and doesn’t notice the Sentinel behind him, which punches Warren and Bishop down. Storm quickly makes some winds to soften their landing. Two Sentinels prepare to attack Psylocke, who panics. A recovered Wolverine notices this and helps Betsy out, slashing the Sentinels apart with his claws. Her composure restored, Psylocke thanks Logan for the help and activates her psychic knife, joining the battle. She uses her knife to slash off one of the Sentinel’s arms, and Warren catches it.
Warren notices the arm is still in its firing position. He thinks it needs some juice – and thinks he knows what that means: he’ll need a power source. In understanding, Storm generates some lightning and fires it onto the arm. The resulting blast destroys another Sentinel. Dazzler is amazed as she never thought that plan would ever work. Warren agrees, but again a Sentinel sneaks up on him and destroys the severed Sentinel arm with a blast. Warren drops the remains and flies back up, having a backup plan in mind. He waits until another Sentinel is close enough nearby him. When this Sentinel fires at him, Warren quickly flies up and the dodged blast destroys two Sentinels Wolverine was fighting.
Storm gets hit by a Sentinel and falls down. Luckily, Wolverine reacts fast enough and catches her, joking he wouldn’t know what she’d do without him. Storm in turn jokes she’d have to be a little less reckless. The two land down and are quickly surrounded by four newly arriving Sentinel units. Wolverine asks Storm to sit tight while he handles this. He jumps on the first Sentinel in the line, and slices its head off. He then tosses it against the second Sentinel, which bumps into the third and that one bumps into the one standing behind it. With the circuit complete, having been closed by the three now touching, Storm fires a lightning bolt on the final three remaining robots, which gives the team some time to breathe.
Psylocke congratulates her teammates, but reminds them that they’re there to stop the robots, which are being controlled by someone else. They now have to fight their way out of there, or wherever Fenris ran off to, as they have disappeared while they were fighting.
Meanwhile, at Central Park…
Stryfe is standing in the middle of the park on a stadium with his army of mutants behind him. He’s giving a loud speech to the humans at the park, who gather around. Stryfe proudly declares that they are mutants, and that they refuse to hide. He wants the humans to see them as their brothers, their sisters, friends and neighbors. He points out that mutants are no different than humans… and have no reason to fear them any more than themselves! The mutants won’t hide in the shadows any longer, won’t be forced to live their lives separately from society, and will no longer be ashamed of what they are!
The mutants now ask… demand to be treated as equals. They ask for the same rights as everyone else in America! Stryfe says that the governments wants humans to believe they have no ties to these “rogue” Sentinels. But he isn’t fooled. He remembers the government hunted mutants before, and now they’re simply doing it again! He’s here to say that mutants will not back down. They will not run and hide. They will stand shoulder to shoulder as one: unstoppable, invincible, and they will fight for their right to exist! They will make a stand!
The mutants behind Stryfe happily cheer out his name, but Pyro observes reluctantly at the side of the stadium. Suddenly, an angry man among the people throws a bottle at Stryfe and calls him a mutant freak. He promises that, if Stryfe wants a fight, they’ll give him one. Stryfe asks his fellow mutants to leave this man be, promising that the man’s time will come, and tells the man that he shouldn’t fear them. The man gets even angrier when he thinks mutants believe humans are scared of them. A wolf-like mutant shouts at the man to leave them alone, but he won’t let himself be intimidated by her.
Stryfe points his attention to Zero, telling his friend it’s time to go. Zero teleports them both away, which is only noticed by Pyro, who wonders where they are going. On that moment, three Sentinels appear above them in the sky! Pyro panics, thinking Stryfe somehow knew the Sentinels were coming and simply abandoned them. All of the mutants start running for their lives, and the angry man from before laughs at this. He shouts that the mutants can’t hide forever and that they’re getting what they deserve.
Back at the Sentinel base…
Angel wonders where the Fenris twins went but Psylocke, who jumps over a Sentinel blast, doesn’t care right now. It appears only half of the Sentinel robots are left, which event out the odds. Seeing Angel gets hit, Dazzler curses and yells for someone to catch him. Storm tries to create some winds to soften Warren’s fall, but he’s too far out of her reach. She tries to fly closer and keeps creating winds, but it doesn’t work. Warren lands rather harsh on the ground and is quickly attended to by Dazzler.
Meanwhile, Wolverine goes feral and slashes through all of the remaining Sentinels until they are all destroyed. Psylocke tries to calm him down but fails. Suddenly, a loud voice shouts out “STOP!” at Wolverine, and he does as ordered. It’s the Fenris twins again! And… they’ve taken Psylocke hostage! Andrea and Andreas stand behind Betsy, whom they have sit on her knees. The twins hold hands together, and threaten to kill Betsy with their powers. They ask Wolverine what he’s going to do.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a recovered Bishop stands up and points his gun to Fenris, angrily demanding to… get away from his wife?! Psylocke is left speechless.
