Jean "Marvel Girl" Grey and Jimmy Hudson wake up in the woods. Emma Frost's forces have captured the rest of their team, but Grey psychically masked her presence as well as Hudson's and so the two were not noticed. Grey asks how Hudson is doing and he says to give him a minute while his healing factor works. Once he heals, he says he's fine. The two try to figure out their next move until their Blackbird flies overhead and tells them that it has tracked the captured X-Men and will take both Grey and Hudson to their prison so they can be rescued. Grey and Hudson, stunned, wonder how the plane can talk.
In Utopia, New Tian's capital, Scott "Cyclops" Summers demands to know where the X-Men are. His eye-beams don't work and Frost tells him she turned them off with an inhibitor collar. She then tells Summers that he could have a good home in New Tian if he cooperates, but he just wants to know where his friends are and she snaps that most of them are fine. He demands clarification and Frost says that sometimes rebels die, and furthermore, sometimes the empire is right and the rebels are wrong. She says that mutants finally have a safe place in the world thanks to the New Tian regime. Summers says he doesn't believe his teammates are dead, and adds that he knows Frost doesn't care about anyone besides herself, including other mutants. Frost calls Summers 'Love' and says she hates it when they fight. This confuses Summers, who asks who exactly Frost thinks he is, and Frost says she will make him into whoever she wants him to be. She begins to manipulate his mind even as he protests and tries to resist. As she works, she tells him that she'll just brainwash him temporarily until he comes to see things her way.
In another cell, Bobby "Iceman" Drake, Warren "Angel" Worthington III, and Hank "Beast" McCoy wonder how the others fared. McCoy exposits that his inhibitor collar prevents him from casting magic as well as using his powers, meaning none of the X-Men have any way to escape the cell. Drake sighs that they're useless, but Worthington says they should try to figure out how their attackers had extra powers (or 'secondary mutations' as they called them). Drake asks McCoy if he understands how that happened but McCoy says he doesn't know. Worthington then says that, if nothing else, Erik "Magneto" Lenshir will save them. Drake doubts this, saying Lenshir hasn't stopped HYDRA and Frost from taking over so far and there's no reason to think he'll do so now. Worthington has no answer to that and asks what McCoy is doing to pass the time, but all McCoy can say is that he's thinking of the spells he hopes to use on their captors for when they escape.
Alex "Havok" Summers asks Briar Raleigh what she thinks of the luxurious prison cell she's been put in. Raleigh asks what Alex's angle is and wonders why she's in such a nice cell. Alex says that Sebastian Shaw told them she was part of the Hellfire Club and that meant she got better treatment, but Raleigh says that Shaw couldn't care less about her. She guesses that the New Tian regime wants information she has but is aware that she has Shi'Ar mental defenses that will fry anyone who tries to read her mind, and so they want to coax her into just telling them what she knows. Alex admits that she's right and says they want to know where Lenshir is; he's supposedly dead but Alex does not believe that's really true, and he further believes Raleigh knows his location. Raleigh says she'll never talk even if she's tortured, but adds that if Lenshir is alive then New Tian will be hearing from him very soon.
In Vietnam, Lenshir talks with his robot butler Ferris, who tells him that the safe house was compromised and everyone besides Grey and Hudson was captured. Lenshir thinks for a few moments, then tells Ferris that he won't be going into battle himself, since he did promise he would not interfere with HYDRA or New Tian. As he talks he looks at the skull of Johann "Red Skull" Shmidt, which Steve "Captain America" Rogers gave him as a peace offering. Ferris asks what happens to the X-Men in that case, and Lenshir says he's confident they can deal with the New Tian regime. Ferris asks if Lenshir is on anti-anxiety medication since he's behaving so calmly, but Lenshir says he hasn't. He adds that he has seen fit to provide the X-Men with support, though he won't be there to deliver it in person.
In the Blackbird, Grey tries to talk to the plane but it just tells her to shut up or it will eject her. She meekly asks where they're going and Hudson says they're obviously heading off to rescue the X-Men. The plane acknowledges this to be true and Grey says that's fine with her. They soon arrive at the tower where the prisoners are being kept and Grey can't find the X-Men's minds because of Frost's psychic interference, so Hudson says he'll try to track their partners by smell. They land and begin battling the guards, with Grey warning Hudson not to kill anyone and Hudson insisting that he's not his father.
New Tian's mutant defenders, including Angelica "Firestar" Jones, Rahne "Wolfsbane" Sinclair, and Sarah "Marrow" join the fight, with Jones and Sinclair begging the X-Men to peacefully surrender and Marrow saying there's no point to talk since the X-Men are notoriously stubborn. Morrow demands the X-Men surrender since they're so badly outnumbered, but then many other X-Men seemingly appear around them and begin to fight. Hudson and Grey note that the new X-Men have no scent or minds and are thus illusory, and the Blackbird orders them to stop gaping and enter the prison while everyone is distracted. Grey realizes that the Blackbird is in fact Danger, a robotic version of the Danger Room. Danger orders the two X-Men to rescue their friends and they obey, with Hudson noting how weird their situation is as they run.
The X-Men enter the tower but are stopped by Havok. Before they can do anything, though, Lorna "Polaris" Dane bursts in and tells Havok that he's about to have a very painful reunion.
Tropes:
- Luxury Prison Suite: Raleigh gets one of these.
