An X-jet is en route to Long Island. Aboard are Kitty Pryde, Prestige, Nightcrawer and Storm. The mood is somber. Kitty thinks of her phone call to Peter Rasputin a few minutes ago.
Flashback:
At least she was trying to reach Peter, not his voicemail. She admitted that she didn’t know why she was calling, maybe it was just to hear his voice. She knows how strange this is, considering she called off their wedding. Unfair would probably be the word he’d choose. And he’d be right. It is unfair to him. But it is unfair to her too. This is happening to her, too. And it hurts her too, maybe not as bad as him, but it does.
Peter sits next to the phone, listening to the message. Oh Katya, he sighs.
At the same time, Prestige is in a Danger Room session with Armor, Pyro and Iceman. Bobby asks her why she returned to her previous uniform. Armor scoffs it is obvious. She changed her costume to the spiked one because Mesmero was in her head. Is it any wonder she’d want to burn the thing? Did she really burn it? Pyro asks as he dispatches his foe. He could have helped.
Rachel replies it’s not that simple. She near killed the three of them, and Ororo, Kitty and Scott. Because Memsero was messing with her, Pyro points out. Because she let him, Rachel insists. She’s sorry doesn’t scratch the surface of what she’s feeling.
Pyro thinks she’s being too hard on herself. Grimly, she replies that, if he knew her family history, he’d say she wasn’t hard enough.
They are joined by Nightcrawler, who announces he needs to talk to Rachel about work. After the others leave, he explains that Cerebro’s detected the emergence of a new omega level mutant. Off-scale cosmic ray discharge. Uncontrollable. Kitty wants them both in the hangar in two minutes.
He continues that they haven’t had a chance to talk since their last conversation. She apologizes and asks if he is okay. For a man who’s heartbroken, she means? He jokes. She takes his hand and corrects him: For someone she still considers a friend.
Is she okay? Kitty asks Storm while they are both getting changed in a dressing room. Storm admits she is managing the sudden loss of the primal power of Stormcaster. Missing that power is unpleasantly reminiscent of the time she lost her mutant power. And what of her? Storm asks Kitty. She lost something far more precious than a hammer.
Her own doing, Kitty demurs. She then muses that sometimes she thinks loss is as much part of being an X-Man as the Danger Room and saving the world thing. Does she think they are cursed? Storm asks. Kitty thinks the loss is to remind them what they are fighting for.
Present:
They arrive in Washington where a glowing omega level mutant is terrorizing the civilians. Kitty orders Nightcrawler and Storm to evacuate civilians and Prestige to telepathically stun the mutant who shouts at everyone in a panic to get away from him. Rachel announces he doesn’t have any PSI-shields, but she can’t get past the energy he’s throwing off. She is hit by an energy blast.
The mutant shouts he can’t control it. Kitty assures him that he can. She walks toward him and addresses him as Brian Morrison. She knows he’s scared. He calls himself a monster. She tells him he isn’t a monster – he’s frightened. And why wouldn’t he be? He woke up this morning to find he has the power of a god. But he’s just a kid and he didn’t ask for any of this. He doesn’t want to hurt anybody but he will if he doesn’t get himself under control. He repeats he can’t. Calmly, she tells him that his life has changed forever but that he absolutely can handle it. What’s happening now doesn’t have to be terrible. It can be wonderful. But he’s going to have to choose for it to be wonderful. And he’s going to have to make that choice for the rest of his life. He gets to decide if he’s a monster. What’s it going to be?
Brian concentrates and powers down, returning to his human form. Kitty praises him as she reaches out her hand. She tells him she knows a place that can teach him. That moment, Brian is shot down by a civilian, who himself seems to be shocked. Kitty shouts at him that he wasn’t hurting anybody. She had it under control. Didn’t hurt anybody? he repeats in disbelief and tells her to look around. Parts of the neighborhood are levelled.
Kitty contacts Nightcrawler and he teleports them to nearby North Shore Medical Center.
A medical team immediately examines him and diagnose a head injury. When Kitty asks questions, a nurse tells her off and draws the curtains around the patient and doctor. Storm and Prestige join Kitty and Kurt and ask what happened. Still shocked, Kitty babbles that they shot him. She talked him down and they shot him…
A little later, the doctor joins them and informs them that Brian has a probable intracranial hemorrhage that needs to be evacuated. Kitty asks him to do it. He can’t, he simply replies then explains that, from what he saw on the news, the boy cannot control his powers. They could manifest even while under anesthesia, and it would be like a bomb going off. He could destroy he entire hospital and kill every doctor, nurse and patient here.
Kitty asks what they can do, before realizing that they intend to do nothing and let Brian die. One lives against all the lives in the building, the doctor replies helplessly. One mutant life he means, Kitty snaps. He looks away, then apologizes.
Kitty orders Nightcrawler to get Dr. Cecilia Reyes. He replies it is too far. He’d never make it in time. She turns to Prestige and asks her to telepathically make the doctor perform surgery. Is that really a line she wants to cross? Rachel asks. Yes! she decides. Whatever it takes.
Suddenly, a blonde, female doctor announces she will do it. Her colleague warns her what will happen if the boy goes off and blows up the entire hospital. Frostily, she asks what will happen when she goes to the hospital board and has him thrown out for malpractice and discrimination.
She turns to the X-Men and tells them she will try. Kitty asks if she knows her. She looks familiar. She replies, they met a few months ago.
Flashback:
Kitty was addressing a crowd and the woman had called her ‘it.’
Present:
She continues, Kitty had said something that stayed with her. Kitty had promised the X-Men were going to win back people’s trust. Over the past few months, she’s watched them do it. They became real to her. Not something to be feared and hated. Not “mutants.” Not even “heroes.” Just people. They’re just people.
Later, the four X-Men sit in the waiting area, just waiting and wondering whether the boy will make it or not.
