1st story:
Wolverine contacts Beast, who can hardly believe what just happened. Wolverine explains to Hank that a plane exploded, right over the runway of the airport he and Nightcrawler are standing. The whole airport is a disaster right now, as the plane has put almost everything on fire. Logan also mentions to Hank that Banshee got caught in the blast and is most likely dead. Hank is startled. He asks Logan to hold on, as he can hear something going on outside the school. Logan warns Hank to listen to him, as he’s got exactly two minutes to hide everything he doesn’t want to show to the cops, who will probably show up at the school any minute now.
Beast jumps out of his room and starts climbing the roof, ignoring Logan. Logan orders Hank to listen to him, trying to explain that the Blackbird didn’t just explode on its own but that another plane rammed into it. Hank realizes Logan is talking about the Blackbird. Logan confirms, believing they are in deep trouble. Hank makes it to the roof, and notices that several Sentinels have arrived. They order all mutants present at the school that, by order of the Office of National Emergency, the school is under lockdown as from now on and that nobody is allowed to leave.
Hank immediately jumps back down, wanting to warn Emma so they can handle this. He asks for a confirmation that the Blackbird rammed onto the plane Sean was in. Logan confirms, mentioning that also about a hundred people must have been aboard his plane as well. He can only hope Scott and Rachel weren’t there as well. Hank tells Logan he’s got to find out about that, and also whatever it was that Sean was bringing with him. He promises they’ll mourn Banshee later, but right now they’ve got to find the info he died for.
Kurt and Logan walk back to their truck. Logan explains that people are still putting out the fire of the explosion, but knows that they are both the best bet to deal with this thing. He wishes Hank good luck. Kurt wants to know what’s going on. Logan explains to him that they are all in deep trouble and better suit up, as they’ve got work to do.
at an unknown location…
Cyclops and Rachel are still hold captive. Rachel can feel that something is wrong. Scott doesn’t understand what she means by that. Rachel doesn’t know for sure either, but she thinks whatever their mysterious opponent did to her is wearing off. She’s starting to think better. Scott wants to know if Rachel’s telepathy is returning so she can contact Emma. Unfortunately, she can’t.
The mysterious villain reveals himself, sarcastically mocking that his effects are probably wearing off because he is being careless. He takes off his hood, and reveals his face with burning yellow eyes. He uses his powers and releases Rachel. The man claims that Rachel is feeling just the way he wants her to feel, and nothing more.
Scott angrily warns the man to leave Rachel alone. The man promises he won’t do that, reminding Scott that he told her he needs the girl. Scott defends that Rachel is just a kid. The man angrily defends that they were all children once. He orders Scott to shut up this instant, or else he will hurt Rachel. Scott does, but doesn’t like it. The man grabs Rachel’s hand. He warns Rachel not to try anything, so they might get through this. He touches her face and uses his powers on her.
Xavier’s…
Lots of soldiers have arrived at the school and hold everyone at gunpoint. Beast tries to explain that their plane was hijacked, but the commander doesn’t really believe that, thinking that nobody is able to steal a plane right under a group of super powered mutant’s noses. Emma claims that’s exactly what they’ve been trying to find out before the soldiers came bursting in.
The commander mentions that he’s here on behalf of O*N*E*, so he warns Emma to better behave a little. Emma refuses to be treated like a criminal with no rights. Beast tries to calm her down but fails. The commander angrily shouts that the X-Men’s plane just killed about a hundred people. Emma knows that since one of their best friends got caught in the explosion too.
While Emma and the commander keep fighting, Havok chooses to leave. He enters a room, and overhears someone asking Xavier what he means. Charles claims that he has known it from since the moment they met, that Corsair was Major Christopher Summers. Alex opens the door, and can actually see... the Professor and his dad?! Corsair wants to know how Xavier could possibly have known that. Xavier explains that Corsair’s thoughts practically shouted at him, but his cerebral structure is also so similar to Scott’s that Corsair had to be closely related to him.
Corsair doesn’t understand the word “cerebral structure.” Xavier explains it’s like the DNA of someone’s thought patterns, but he doesn’t think that’s important right now. Havok demands to know what’s going on. He angrily shouts to get out of his head, but nobody seems to listen. Xavier continues to claim that it’s important that both Scott and Alex can’t know Corsair is their father, believing they’ve both already been through much already and doesn’t want to see them hurt any further. Corsair understands that, defending that he just thought both his sons had been killed. On that very moment, the ghost forms fade away into nothingness.
Polaris approaches Alex, asking if he’s alright. She heard him screaming, having thought he was in a fight or something. Alex wants to know if he’s seeing the real Lorna. Lorna thinks so, wanting to know why she wouldn’t be. Alex thinks that must mean Lorna hasn’t seen any ghosts. He can only hope the others are as lucky. Unfortunately, they aren’t. Iceman believes he’s being chased by angry pterodactyl. Colossus freaks out when he thinks he’s seeing soldiers, who claim to have orders to take the “little girl” to the Red Room so they can study her.
at an unknown location…
The man is still touching Rachel’s head, causing her to feel bad, using his powers and her telepathy to make the X-Men see the ghosts. Cyclops doesn’t understand what’s going on, but orders the man to stop hurting Rachel.
Xavier’s…
Beast suggests that they just talk calmly about this, since they aren’t going anywhere. The commander sarcastically states that’s true, as he’s already looking his culprits right into the face. Kitty interrupts, thinking she realizes what the mistake is. She thinks the commander probably didn’t get briefed about the report she sent to his boss about the missing Blackbird, as soon as she found out yesterday morning. While an unbelievable commander takes a closer look at the report, which seems to be in order, Emma continues to call him names. Beast holds her back, defending that everyone is in a state of shock currently, but suggests that they’ll help wherever they can to find the real culprit.
All of the soldiers leave. Kitty is still startled the soldiers just barged in like that. Emma feels lucky they didn’t all get dragged away handcuffed. Beast compliments Kitty on the paperwork, wanting to know if it’s real. Kitty confirms, explaining that after she heard Logan, Scott and Rachel got ripped out of the Blackbird like that yesterday by an unknown enemy now probably has the plane, so she thought this was the smartest move to make. Looking at Emma to make his point, Hank thinks it’s a good thing at least somebody is holding a clear head.
Emma admits her mistake, claiming she’s a little on edge. Beast defends that everyone is at right now. Emma corrects that it’s differently with her, because she feels like someone is crawling and creeping around in the darkest corners of her thoughts. She doesn’t understand how, but she is aware that somebody has been digging through those dark thoughts for the past hour, and Emma believes it’s Rachel.
the airport…
Nightcrawler teleports both himself and Logan nearby the plane wrecks. Logan can’t smell anything due to the fumes and flames. Kurt sees this as a true tragedy, and he isn’t even talking about what happened to Sean. Logan tells him to be quiet, as he hears something. They go hide behind a big piece of the wreck, and notice security soldiers scouting. Logan also notices something else: the cockpit of the Blackbird!
Kurt finds it amazing that the cockpit survived the explosion so intact. Logan they’ve got Banshee’s doing to thank for that, who probably used his supersonic scream in an attempt to stop the attack. Logan wants to go into the remains though, to make sure Cyclops and Rachel aren’t burned up in there like everyone else is. Kurt doesn’t think that’s possible since the entire place is filled with soldiers. Logan snikts out his claws, promising he’ll take care of it by distracting the soldiers a bit. He quickly takes off, leaving Kurt behind.
Wolverine finds two lonely soldiers. One of them admits he’s finds this place to be a little creepy. On that very moment, Logan jumps out of the shadows and tackles them down. The other troops hear the battle noises, and rush to their comrades’ aid. But Kurt has noticed all of this and teleports in, dropping the soldiers off elsewhere.
A few moments later, Logan meets up with Kurt, who is already sitting in the remains of the cockpit. Kurt notices that Logan actually got hurt in the battle, but he claims it’s nothing serious and that he only has punctured lungs, which should heal in about a minute. He asks if Kurt found any sign of Scott and Rachel. Kurt didn’t, but he already suspects that the plane was controlled by a remote. And he has also find Banshee’s corpse. It looks like Sean crashed right through the windshield, which must have felt like being hit by brick wall at a hundred kilometers. Kurt is still startled that all this happened to their friend.
at an unknown location…
The mysterious villain stops using his powers on Marvel Girl. He smirks, complimenting Rachel that she might even give the original Marvel Girl some competition after all. Rachel is furious that her mind was raped like that and is ready to attack the man. But he quickly uses his powers on Rachel again, knocking her out. Cyclops angrily shouts at the man to stop it as he promised he wouldn’t hurt her. The man smiles that Rachel started it so he didn’t have much of a choice. And it’s not like Rachel is helpless… at least not in normal circumstances. He chains Rachel against the wall again, and asks Scott to remind her that he’s almost done with her, warning that Rachel might want to try and stay on his good side.
the airport…
More soldiers have arrived and are still looking for Logan and Kurt, but fail to find them. Their boss refuses to hear any more bad news and wants the mutants found immediately. The soldiers understand and continue the search. Kurt overhears the conversation, and teleports himself and Logan into safety. They teleport several more times around the plane wrecks, and search through it, but don’t find any clues about Scott or Rachel’s whereabouts. P>
Kurt warns that it’s going to be day light soon, and he fears that the info Sean was bringing with him will be also unfortunately lost thanks to the explosion. Logan doesn’t think so, as he just found something. Kurt goes to take a closer look, and finds a briefcase labeled “Muir Island.”
at an unknown location…
Rachel wakes up again and asks Scott what happened. Cyclops explains that Rachel attacked their captor, and smiles that he didn’t suspect that, considering Rachel’s condition. He proudly declares that Jean would have done the very same thing. Rachel’s head hurts, and explains that their captor used her powers for something to dig through the thoughts of the other X-Men, almost as if he was looking for something. She thinks he was looking for the Professor, like where he is.
She also felt something else. When their captor was in Rachel’s head, she got in his a little too. She knows what she discovered doesn’t’ make any sense, but she found out that the man had a severed mental link to the Professor. It’s an old one, but it was still there. And Rachel suspects that their captor knew the Professor and, what’s even worse, she suspects that he was trained with him!
Xavier’s…
Wolverine asks Beast if he managed to find something on the tape that was in the briefcase he and Kurt found. Hank mentions he will in a minute. He had to clean it up a little bit since the tape was in a pretty bad shape. He also feels lucky that the tape was in one of Moira’s old project briefcases, and explains that those cases were meant to carry sensitive equipment and were impact resistant. Logan just wants to know if they will see what Moira recorded or not. Hank explains that he pieced together the tape fragments with his computer and digitally scanned them to the time code, so he wants to give it a try. He turns on the volume of the tape, so they can hear what Moira has to say.
On the recording, Moira angrily calls Xavier a bastard, hating the fact that he’s doing it again. He came to her asking for help, to save his X-Men when they went missing. The tape gets blurred a while. On that moment, Moira starts to cry. She hates the fact that she gave Charles her own, and they were just children. The noise gets blurry again. She concludes that Xavier got them all killed!
2nd story:
The police would report the killed victims as David and Emily Chan, both at age 47. They were both naturalized citizens, originally from Hong Kong, having lived in California for the past twenty years. The miraculous survivor of the assault was their 17-year old daughter, Suzanne.
At the crime scene, while news reporter takes some pictures of the drama, Detective Walters approaches Suzanne, wanting to know if he can ask her some questions. In shock, Suzanne can only say something about her having stopped the bullets.
Walters simply reports that Suzanne was still in shock. After all, she had just watched her parents gunned down at on the streets of New York’s Chinatown. She was caught in the crossfire of gang-warfare that she would never understand. Suzanne just wanted to go to Barnard College and move to the East Coast. This trip was supposed to be about that, to show her parents the College and the dorms, to show them that she was being safe around here. Instead, they got killed when visiting a restaurant.
Walters walks over to Mac, asking what he discovered about the incident. Mac just concluded that none of it makes any sense. There are bullet holes everywhere, as he’s counting about a hundred discharged rounds, but Suzanne doesn’t even have a single scratch on herself. Walters walks back towards her, wanting to know how that could happen. Still in shock, Suzanne keeps saying that she stopped the bullets.
Suzanne doesn’t exactly understand what she had done. She hadn’t stopped the bullets, but instead stopped time in a small radius. There was an explosion of gunfire and screams, and suddenly she made all of that stop. She ran through the path of the bullets that stood still in the air. But whatever she had done, it hadn’t lasted long, as her parents ended up death and the criminals got away.
The police put Suzanne in a hospital for eighty-four hours for observation. But there was nothing to observe, as the girl just cried herself to sleep. When she gets out of the room, the police tell her they are working on leads to find her parent’s killers, but the tones in their voices don’t sound much promising. Walters claimed that people in Chinatown don’t talk to the police much.
After that moment, Suzanne is out on the streets on her own. She was in the city that killed her parents, not knowing what to do. She wanders the streets at first, but eventually finds herself back at the spot of the murder. She stands there, wondering about what she had done to have herself survive the incident. It seems impossible.
And just as suddenly as she had stopped time, the other part of Suzanne’s mutant abilities reveal themselves to her. She is seeing it all happening again. She can see her walking the streets happily with her parents, but also, she can see the killers again. They are like phantoms, acting out the past, but it feels so real. Just like the real killers, these phantoms escaped down the street. But this time, Suzanne runs after them. She passed other ghosts, other moments in time on these streets, and she begins to understand what is happening. Somehow, she is held sway over time. She lowed it down during the shooting, and now she was making it replay itself.
Suzanne follows the killers right to the front door of their hideout. And in real time, she can see them inside their house, celebrating their victory with their lovers. Suzanne runs to a phone booth and contacts Walters. However, once the police arrive, the killers don’t give up easily. Both the officers and the killers open fire, but Suzanne holds the killers’ bullets down with her powers. She explains to Walters that she stopped the bullets in time so they weren’t going to hurt his men. She’s glad that she can make bullets stop hurting anyone ever again.
After the fight and the killers arrested, Suzanne explains at the police station how she survived the attack on her parents. She believes that, if she didn’t have this ability, the men who killed her parents were probably never caught. Walters understands. He asks Suzanne to wait for a while, claiming he needs to make a phone call. Suzanne does, as she doesn’t worry about the detective’s motives, as he has nice eyes in her opinion. Not much later, a woman arrives for her.
Suzanne is introduced to Moira MacTaggert. Moira explains that she would like to help Suzanne because she’s a mutant. Suzanne already suspected that. Moira adds that she and a good friend of hers work with mutants. A fair amount of them, actually. Moira asks Suzanne if she ever heard of the X-Men.
