Season Two, Episode Thirteen: Horizons, Part 1

Laboratory, South Wing of Subterranean Compound, 5000 ft. Below Surface, Genosha

"I want to show you something, Scott," Essex said gently. Scott suppressed a shiver; this man's attempt at gentleness was more uncomfortable than anything else he could recall.

"I don't want to see it." Scott folded his arms.

Essex smiled, more widely, more unpleasantly. "Oh, I promise you, you do." He nodded to Alex, who pushed Scott forward, towards the back of the lab. Essex walked backwards, smiling widely, as he led them towards what resembled a long coffin.

Scott narrowed his eyes at the "coffin". A variety of tubes and wires connected it to steadily beeping machines and giant IV drips. Scott paused, and Essex raised his eyebrows.

"Come closer, Scott. You haven't really seen it."

Scott rolled his eyes, already tired of this man's dramatics. He shuffled forward, moving to look through the glass casing.

It was a body — of course it was a body. Scott's eyes roved up the bare, female feet, the legs, just covered by a hospital gown. Up the slim, tall body, to the face, half-covered by vibrant red hair.

No. "No."

Essex giggled — actually giggled — gleeful at Scott's reaction. "Yes. Oh, yes."

Scott shook his head, a helpless reaction. The face stayed the same: the same perfect cheekbones, same flawless lips and hair. Red hair. Her hair.

"Jean." Scott closed his eyes hard, rubbing at his face before looking again. She remained. "What is this?" he whispered.

Essex giggled again. Scott felt a rush of uncontainable anger and whirled on the larger man, grabbing him by the lapels of his black coat. "What is this!?" he thundered. Essex continued grinning. Scott hauled back to punch him, and felt his brother's arms around his own, pulling him back.

"Easy, little brother," Alex soothed. "Easy."

"What is it!?" Scott screamed.

"What? What, what, what . . . don't you mean who?" Essex posed.

"No," Scott growled. "I saw her d— I saw her die. That's not Jean. What is it? What did you do?"

"So perceptive." Essex sighed. "So particular. Is a perfectly matched body made and grown not the same as a body born?"

"I swear if I hear another line of bull come out of your mouth Essex, I will kill you if it is the last thing I ever do!" Scott swore as he struggled hard against his bigger brother's hold. "Tell me what that is, because it isn't Jean."

"I can swear to you, Mr. Summers, that what you are looking at is indeed Jean Grey," Essex promised. "The same blood type, the same hair type, same physique and dimensions — even the same eyes, under here—" Essex leaned over to point, and Scott closed his eyes and turned away.

"It's not Jean," he forced out from between his teeth, eyes still closed. "We saw her die. She was completely . . . consumed. It's not her. Not her. It's something else."

Essex sighed, looking perturbed, like a child denied candy. "Well, I suppose if you want to quibble she is perhaps a few years younger than you're used to."

Scott opened his eyes to stare daggers at the scientist. Essex rolled his eyes. "Very well. She's a clone, if you would be so vulgar and specific. Physically identical in every way, though."

"Physically." Scott spat. "That's not enough to make her Jean."

"Right you are!" Essex agreed. He stepped forward to tap Scott's nose with one of his long, white fingers, making Scott hiss in fury. "Her mind, the mind, that's the thing we're missing."

"Because she's dead, you crazy, eyeliner-wearing Frankenstein knockoff!" Scott exploded. "Do you not understand death?"

"Oh, I do," Essex proclaimed proudly. "I understand it better than most. Certainly better than you. Once you move beyond the more primitive ideas about the body, the mind, the inner person — once you stop the inane questions about morals, you can quite easily overcome such a little thing. For your lovely, lovely friend here—" Essex stepped back and ran a hand gently over the top of the case, making Scott struggle instinctively against his brother — "is merely a mutant Snow White, waiting for us to jog the apple from her throat."

"You are really, truly, a new kind of insane, Essex," Scott murmured, deliberately looking the man in the eyes to keep from seeing the mockery of Jean.

"No, Mr. Summers, I am a very old kind. Far older than you could know. And those even older than I have shown me how very simple a thing is death to correct, when it occurs to a god," Essex insisted, his face lighting up in a way that caused Scott to step back further into his brother.

"Jean wasn't a god," Scott whispered. "That's why— that's why she chose to die."

"Yes, she chose to," Essex agreed, his voice still ringing like an old time preacher, a madman with a cause. "As only a god can. And we can awaken her, from this sleep of death. For a creature as powerful as the Phoenix is more than her physical form. That she can slough off, like any immortal. But her mind! Her mind exists, Mr. Summers, out there." Essex looked up and waved his hand around grandly. "In the stars and the ether. We need only to collect it, to invite it back into the form. And then, like Osiris, she may rise again. And you . . ." Essex gestured elegantly to Scott, who pulled further back. "You can help me."

Scott could hear his own heart pounding — or was it the ticking and beeping of the machines keeping the empty clone of Jean alive? This form of her, this simulacrum of the woman he loved?

"No." Scott shook his head. "No. Jean gave her life so her death would mean something. Even if you weren't completely crazy, and all this crap about myths and fairytales meant you could do it — no."

Essex sighed. "It always takes the small-minded so long to accept the truth. You—"

A blaring alarm, loud enough to cause all three men to cringe, sounded. A cold, technical female voice followed. "Warning," she warned, "unauthorized personnel on premises. Breach of containment cells. Warning, unauthorized personnel on premises. Breach of . . ."

Essex looked around wildly. "What is this? What is this?"

Cell Block 495, 3000 ft. Below Surface, Genosha

"Why did they stop?"

The words came out in a hard whisper from Bobby's sore throat, aching from shouting through the barrier. His eyes were still locked on Kitty's prone form. On his knees, he couldn't stop himself from looking over every cut, over every bruise on her tiny body. Her eyes were closed. She was breathing — he comforted himself with that knowledge.

"You," John said, his face pale. His lips worked and he was continually swallowing, as if holding down his own visceral reaction. "You broke, so they stopped. For now."

"For now?" Bobby's voice could barely reach the other mutant's ears.

"Yeah," John responded, just as softly. "They'll . . . they'll clean her up. Get her fixed. If your — if they think it's enough they might stop. If not—"

The alarm sounded, loud and jarring, and John looked up. Bobby barely reacted. "What's that?" he asked in a dead voice.

"I don't know," John whispered.

"Warning — unauthorized personnel on premises. Breach of containment cells. Warning—"

Cell Block 3903, 3000 ft. Below Surface, Genosha

"—breach of containment cells . . ."

Rogue rose up off of Remy's warm chest, swallowing hard. Remy protested, instinctively reaching up to grab her around the waist. "Non . . ."

"What is that?" Rogue questioned, her voice still low, dazed.

"J'ne sais pas," Remy replied, the Cajun accented French rolling of his tongue lazily, though his eyes were slowly becoming more alert. "Sounds like trouble."

"Warning, unauthorized personnel on premises. Breach of containment cells . . ."

Cell Block 278, 2000 ft. Below Surface, Genosha

The metal holding the tops of the cells in Block 278 groaned, shivered, and then came apart. Magneto let down his raised arms slowly. The mutants imprisoned within clamored to escape, the already liberated bashing on the cell barriers and pulling out the wires to free their fellows.

"Warning, unauthorized personnel on premises."

"Yes," Magneto whispered. "Most certainly." More loudly, he proclaimed, "Come, my brothers, my sisters. We are not yet free. There are still many of those who imprisoned us between here and the sky. We should go and give them our regards for our stay."

Many of the mutants cheered, laughed, or screamed their approval. Magneto stepped towards the exit just as it opened sharply to reveal three guards.

"Ah," Magneto said lightly, smiling broadly. "Right on time, sirs."

Confronted with the spectacle of dozens of freed mutants, the guards clung to their guns and long-form tasers shakily. Magneto swept them aside with one imperious gesture. One ran. Another felt to his knees. "Please," he pleaded with the metal-bending mutant. "Please, we were just—"

Magneto tightened his hand, and the identification tag the guard wore tightened around his throat, cutting off his air supply. The man gasped, grabbing at it desperately, as it choked him.

"Excuses," Magneto muttered as the man died. "Always excuses."


TITLE SEQUENCE:

TITLE SONG: "Evolutionary" Composed By Emilie Autumn

Cast:

Wolverine: Hugh Jackman

Storm: Halle Berry

Professor Xavier: Patrick Stewart

Jean Grey: Famke Janssen

Cyclops: James Marsden

Beast: Kelsey Grammar

Rogue: Anna Paquin

Gambit: Taylor Kitsch

Iceman: Shawn Ashmore

Kitty Pryde: Ellen Page

Piotr Rasputin: Enver Gjokaj

Jubilee: Julia Ling

Guest Starring Xander Berkely

Aaron Stanford

Chris Pine

and

Ian McKellen

With Terrance Zdunich as Sinister

Written by Craig Silverstein

Directed by Danny Cannon


Cell Block 247, 3000 ft. Below Surface, Genosha

"Do you know when they'll come?"

Park turned to Jubilee, who had tried so hard to keep the tremor from her voice, and gave what she supposed was an encouraging smile.

"It's impossible to know, for sure," Park explained. "They keep it irregular — so they can keep you always afraid of it being the time."

"Oh." Jubilee swallowed.

"Hey." Parker crossed his arms over his knees. "Listen. When they come for you, I promise — I'll fight 'em. They might decide to focus on me, or they might think I'm valuable to you, and if they torture me, you'll break."

"But I don't want them to torture you!" Jubilee protested. Park smiled his crooked smile. "I know. But I can take it."

"Park, I don't want you to—"

The alarm blared, ringing into the cells, muffled, from the outside. "Warning, unauthorized personnel on premises. Breach of containment cells. Warning . . ."

Jubilee and Park rose to their feet along with the other mutants in their cell block. "What is that?" Jubilee questioned softly. She turned to look at Park, whose eyes were fiercely alight. "Park?"

"I knew it," Park whispered fervently. "I knew it. I knew this would happen, it had to happen. I knew it."

"What—" Jubilee's question was cut off as the door to the cell block opened and three guards and a man in a lab coat hurried inside. They looked around at the cells, and then pointed to Park and Jubilee. The two mutants stepped back as the guards hurried towards them. When they moved close to the barrier, Jubilee could hear their muted voices through it.

"All of them?" one guard was asking the man in the lab coat.

"Yes," the lab coat answered. "If there's been a breach we need to observe the protocol. No one can be allowed to find the evidence of what we've done here. We need everything incriminating gassed."

Jubilee had been taught many things at the Xavier Institute. One of them was to read between lines. "Park! They're planning to destroy the evidence because of the breach — to kill us!"

As the words left Jubilee's mouth the left side of the barrier was raised. The guards stepped inside, guns and tasers raised.

Faster than she could have ever imagined, Park slid under the raised guns, his leg streaking out to hit the back of one guard's knee. As the man stumbled, Park grabbed the taser in his right hand and turned it into the guard's thigh. As the man shrieked, Park used his left arm to yank away the gun. He shot the man down without hesitation. Just as quickly, he aimed and fired it with deadly accuracy into the other guard's head.

The third guard aimed his weapon just as Park was turning to fire on him. Jubilee saw her chance and bounded across the floor, knocking the gun downward with an arcing roundhouse kick. When the guard turned his head to her, she hit his windpipe with a scissor strike, making him choke. A blow to his temples sent him to the floor.

"Nice, little sister," Park praised, smiling, as he rose from his knees to stand. He was still holding the gun. "Very nice."

Jubilee couldn't hide a grin. "I had some good teachers."

Park's smile fell when he spotted the cowering doctor trying to slip away. "Oh no," he snarled.

"Park, we—"

Jubilee winced, working to hold her ground as the shot rang out. It was immediately followed by the sick splattering sound of skull and brains being splashed onto the floors and right barrier wall. Jubilee swallowed her very powerful urge to be sick before she faced Park.

"He would have killed us," Park said immediately, his voice reasoned. "He would've killed all of us. He had to die."

"I understand, but we—" Jubilee began. Park was already walking out of the cell.

"We have to hurry, more will be be coming," he stated. He strode over to examine the mechanism on the wall the guards had pressed to open their cell. He turned around to cast another look at Jubilee. "They'll be out there, trying to kill others — other mutants."

Jubilee held his gaze for a moment. Park nodded, as if finding confirmation. He turned back to the mechanism. Taking a step back from it, he aimed the gun and fired.

Laboratory, South Wing of Subterranean Compound, 5000 ft. Below Surface, Genosha

"Warning, unauthorized personnel on premises. Breach of containment cells . . ."

"This is not supposed to happen," Essex muttered, pacing back and forth as his eyes roved around the laboratory. Scott rolled his own eyes. Behind him Alex grunted in pain, his grip tightening and loosening on Scott's arms. Alex let one of his brother's arms go, grabbing his own head.

"Alex?" Scott asked, trying to keep the worry from showing in his voice.

"My head," Alex groaned. "I need . . . more of that serum . . .Essex . . ."

Essex looked up, annoyed, but nodded. He strode over to one of the tables. Scott watched the bulky man delicately use a dropper to extract a tiny bit of an azure blue liquid from a hefty flask. He carefully squeezed the liquid into a small vial.

He moved over to Alex, who loosened his grip on Scott more as he reached for it. "Here we are," Essex said as he extended his arm.

Scott waited until his brother's fingers were just touching the vial to slam his elbow up and back into Alex's nose. With a cry of pain, the elder Summers jerked back. His flailing hand knocked into the vial, sending it crashing to the ground.

"No!" Alex screamed in horror, letting his brother go fully to collapse to his knees, desperately trying to scoop up the fallen liquid. Failing, he turned towards the larger flask, only to see Scott slam his fist into Essex's face as the scientist tried to protect it. The younger Summers picked it up.

"No!" Alex screamed from his vantage point on his knees. On the floor a few feet away, Essex was coughing, crawling away from the fray. "Please — Scott, you don't understand."

"I understand that whatever he's done to keep you his little slave is connected to this," Scott snapped. "What would happen if I dropped it, huh?"

"I would get sick," Alex said quickly. "My head would ache, my nose would bleed. After a few weeks I would start blacking out. Then losing breath. Then hair. Then I'd die. I'd die, Scott."

"Is that what he told you?" Scott said, gesturing disgustedly to Essex, who paused in his crawling.

"Yes!" Alex hissed. "Scott he did surgery, surgery on my brain—"

"You let that psycho mess with your brain?" Scott yelled. Alex moved as if to stand and Scott lifted the flask higher. Alex paused.

"Yes," Alex confessed.

"Why?" Scott demanded.

"Because I'm not like you!" Alex yelled back. "I couldn't just learn to control my powers! They were too much. I had to stop before I killed someone!"

"So you sold your soul to him?" Scott said, gesturing towards Essex's general direction. "You didn't want to kill someone, so you came and worked for a mutant slave house?" Scott shook his head. "No. He cut more than your powers out of your brain, big brother. And this?" Scott raised the flask again. "This is just another of his lies."

Alex moved just as Scott did, leaping towards the younger man as Scott moved to throw the flask to the ground. Alex caught Scott's hand. The liquid from the flask sloshed and spilled as brother struggled against brother for it. Alex was stronger, Scott knew, he had always known it — but Alex was desperate. Desperation made him clumsy, and he had to try and save something, not destroy it. Scott let his brother pull the flask up, just towards his lips, and then kicked up with his left knee. It jarred his brother just enough for Scott to yank the flask downward, spilling the contents on the cold, stone ground.

"No!" Alex screamed, scrapping his hands on the floor as the liquid ran and flowed away, useless.

"Sorry, brother," Scott whispered as he brother rolled off of him, chasing after the tiny rivulets. "Whatever that is, it's not healing you."

"Essex!" Alex screamed, turning to look for the scientist. "Essex!"

Scott looked up as well. Nathaniel Essex was gone. The exit door to the lab was wide open.

Alex snarled, and pushed to his feet, running wildly after the man. "Alex, no!" Scott yelled. He started to force himself up, and then felt a wave of pain through his head. His eyes began to water — and then burn.

"No," he growled, recognizing the tell-tale feeling of his returning powers. Blinking away the pain, he pushed himself to his feet and ran after his brother.

Cell Block 3903, 3000 ft. Below Surface, Genosha

"Them ain' been 'round here in a while."

Rogue was flexing her hands, and it took a moment for Remy's words to register. She turned to look up at the Cajun, who stood with his face nearly pressed against the glass. "Who?"

"'Dem guards," Remy answered, eyes roving around the empty cell block. "Ain' been back here. That warnin' still goin', but nobody came down our area. That means either they killin' the people who doin' it . . . or they plannin' on fixin' up this whole place."

"Fixin'?" Rogue was still looking at her hands.

"Fixin' — killin'. They ain' gonna want this gettin' found, them. They'll burn it. Burn us." Remy took a step back, touching the barrier gently with expert fingers. "We gotta break this down, chere."

"Remy, I feel stronger."

"Well good, 'cause when dey come—"

"No, I mean — I feel stronger."

Remy turned and met Rogue's scared, pained gaze. Remy opened and closed his mouth, his face running the gamut of emotions from despair to hope. Rogue held his gaze until it hurt to do so, and then stood up.

"I think I can break it," Rogue said, going over to the wall. She swallowed hard, and laid one hand against the surface. Then she took a step back, and kicked the barrier with all her newly returned strength. A wave of fury and loss came over her. She slammed into it again.

The barrier splintered. Rogue pulled back to kick again, and felt Remy's hand on her shoulder. She flinched, pulling aside.

"I t'ink I feel mine . . . back too," Remy said softly. Rogue nodded, and took a deliberate step away from him. Remy rubbed his hands together, building up a soft glow of kinetic energy. He pressed his hands to the splinter, letting it glow brightly, before quickly stepping aside.

"Back, move!" Remy took Rogue's hand. For a moment they looked at each other, Rogue frightened, Remy aching. Then he pulled her to the other side of the cell, yanking her down to the floor where they knelt. Remy threw up his arm as the barrier shattered with the force of his energy, protecting Rogue's now invulnerable face.

Rogue thought of blaming the hammering of her heart on the force of the explosion, and the rush of blood to her cheeks on the heat from the shattered barrier. But when she looked up, her forehead nearly brushing against Remy's and met his black-and-red gaze, she knew lies were useless. Inches from skin-to-skin contact, Rogue couldn't prevent herself from leaning in closer. Remy's eyelids started to flutter, his heart jackhammering loud enough for her to hear.

No, that wasn't his heart. Those were footsteps. Rogue turned instinctively, and Remy pulled back, blinking and shaking his head. Rogue stood up, putting some distance between them as she spotted the man running down their cell block.

"Hey!" she cried. The man stopped and turned — it was the large, hook-nosed scientist.

"You!" Rogue snapped. She moved forward. The scientist turned from her to Remy. Remy grabbed her wrist. Rogue froze at the contact, terrified until she remembered he was now wearing his gloves.

"Non," Remy stopped. "We can' waste time on him, chere. Gotta find the rest o' our people, oui?"

Rogue turned to look to Remy's almost pleading expression, and then back to the scientist. Essex grinned nastily, and Rogue felt herself pull towards him. Remy tightened his grip. "Chere!"

Essex fled out the exit. Rogue pulled her hand from Remy's. "Right, fine. We gotta find the rest. Where do we start?"

Cell Block 8, Room 375, 4000 ft Below Surface, Genosha

"Make sure to position yourselves at every point of egress."

"Yes, sir."

The guards moved to station themselves around the self-contained metal box. The scientist, Dr. Lehman, inspected them carefully before nodding. Moving to the wall, he uncovered the panel that controlled the containment cell. He counted down on his fingers, making them visible to the guards. Three . . . two . . . one. He pressed the code. The cell lifted up, the panel farthest from him coming up first.

There was a grunt and a scream. Dr. Lehman looked up wildly, but was unable to see over the other, slowly rising panels.

"Carson!" yelled one of the guards. "Carso—"

There was a shriek, and then a gurgle. Dr. Lehman leaned over to look as the left side panel lifted. On the ground lay a dead guard, his head cracked and bleeding, shot with his own gun.

Dr. Lehman didn't wait to hear the screams of the other two guards. He turned to the wall, hurrying to type in the code to reverse the cell containment. Behind him he heard another scream and another body drop. He rushed to type in the final letter.

"Freeze." He felt cool metal on the back of his head. A chill went through his body — no, through the air itself.

Dr. Lehman removed his hand. He turned slowly, and met entirely white eyes. He swallowed as the very angry mutant pressed the gun to his head. Breathing heavily, he elected not to plead. He waited instead for death.

The woman before him seemed to be debating, struggling with herself. Dr. Lehman waited, knowing his fate was in the hands of this furious woman's conscience.

She lowered the gun. Dr. Lehman let out a sigh of relief, his face unable to resist breaking out into a smile.

The smile froze on his face as the woman pressed a hand to his chest. He felt unbearable, painful heat spread though his body, frying his nervous system, overloading his brain. As a scientist at Genosha he had applied shock to others, but never felt it himself. Shaking, his teeth chattering, Dr. Lehman felt the full force of a lightning strike run through his entire body. The last thing he would ever remember would be his own reflection in the woman's white eyes.

COMMERCIAL BREAK


Cell Block 495, 3000 ft. Below Surface, Genosha

"What are they doing now?"

John swallowed and squinted at the screen that showed Kitty's still form. A man in a lab coat had entered, escorted by two guards. "I don't know," John replied, leaning in closer to the barrier. "It looks like . . ."

The lab coat started pulling out the wires used to monitor Kitty. The man gestured directions to the guards. One of them lifted his gun and shot at the monitors.

"What are they doing?" Bobby repeated. "Are they breaking her out? Are they on our side?"

John shook his head slowly. "I don't think so, bro, I think . . ." The scientist took out a syringe, flicking it. "I think they're—"

"They're killing her!" Bobby completed. "No! No, goddamnit!" He pounded at the barrier, helpless. The scientist pressed the tip of the syringe to Kitty's skin. John swallowed, unable to look away.

The scientist paused, looking up and towards the door, his expression confused, then fearful. "What's going on?" Bobby asked, unable to see the door into the room on the screen. "What is it?" On the screen one of the guards raised his gun and fired, only to have the bullet ricochet and imbed itself in his colleague. The guard strode forward, and found himself promptly slashed through the neck by a pair of claws.

"Logan!" Bobby cried aloud. The burly mutant moved into the sight of the camera, accompanied by the armored up Piotr and Sid. The lab coat was visibly trembling, his mouth moving, probably begging. Bobby felt no sympathy for him as Piotr slammed his metallic fist into the whimpering man's face, knocking him out. Sid and Logan were gently working to get Kitty free of the straps on the bed.

"They're coming for us!" Bobby said triumphantly. "They're coming."

"Yeah, hate to be the guy to destroy this magical moment of relief and justified violence," John stated, "but if they went to kill her, then they're probably coming for us too."

"Let 'em try," Bobby said, seething. "They—"

The door at the end of their cell block slammed open. Both boys tensed up, readying for a fight as the hook-nosed man barreled down their hall. They moved closer together, side to side, their mutual training taking over when he neared their cell. But the hook-nosed man ignored them completely, heading straight for the door at the other end.

"Okay," John said as he exited, "so he's not our imminent death. Maybe—"

The door slammed open again, and another figure came running down the hall. The boys put up their hands again, but the athletic blonde man just continued running, following the same path out the other door.

"Okay, what is this, a Benny Hill sketch?" John complained. "Either kill us or don't, but—"

"Scott!" Bobby yelled, as a third person came into the cell block, this one recognizable. "Professor Summers!"

Quickly realizing the determined Scott couldn't hear them, Bobby bashed his fists into the barrier, waving his arms. "Come on, come on!"

Scott's eyes glanced over the sides of the cells, and he continued running for a few paces before stopping. John joined Bobby in waving his arms and banging the barrier to catch the mutant professor's attention.

"Come on, let us out!" John demanded, as Scott's eyes landed on them. "Yo, he sees us."

"Professor!" Bobby said joyfully. "Come on!"

Scott clearly recognized both boys, but his gaze kept going down to the other door, where the previous men had run. "Come on," Bobby said, opening his hands. "What is he doing?"

"Debating, I think," John said. Bobby shook his head. "No, he has to help us—"

Scott looked agonized, but he appeared to take a deep breath. He motioned at Bobby and John, moving his hands sideways. Bobby grabbed John, yanking him into the left hand corner, as Scott winced, squinted, and then opened his eyes fully. A weak but effective blast emanated from the optically powered mutant's eyes, blasting a hole through the barrier.

Bobby immediately jumped to the break and clambered through, ignoring the slashes to his skin. John followed as Scott moved closer, now using his hand to shield his eyes.

"Logan and Sid and Piotr are here," Bobby said as soon as he was free. "They found Kitty. We have to get them."

"We have to—" Scott made as if to look out the exit door again, and then stopped himself. "Okay. So they're free? What about Remy, Rogue, and Jubilee? Have either of you seen Storm?"

"No," Bobby answered. "But we better find 'em fast. I think they're gonna try and eliminate us all — get rid of the evidence."

"They've locked up hundreds of powerful mutants down here," John said, looking around the cell block at the other residents, who were pounding on their barriers, begging for freedom. "If we break even some of 'em out — we can't lose."

"Powers come back slowly, if they haven't injected you," Scott said, now keeping his eyes shut entirely. "We'll need to find weapons, or it'll be a slaughter."

"Oh, it'll be a slaughter," John stated dryly. "I don't think there's any stopping that."

Ground Floor, Lion's Paw Resort, Genosha

The elevator opened, and Jubilee blinked as she got her first look at sunlight in days, streaming through the windows in the long marble halls of the hotel. Beside her, Park led the others who had joined them out into the blazing light, many stumbling, blinking.

"It's like they don't remember sunlight," Jubilee noted aloud.

"A lot of them don't," Park said darkly. Jubilee turned to question the scarred mutant further when three guards moved to cut off their group, raising guns.

"Stop right where you are," the one in the center demanded. Park growled, and took a step forward. The guard clicked the safety off his weapon.

One of the mutants in their group, a middle-aged woman, gave a high-pitched scream of rage and leapt towards the guard. The guard whirled and shot, hitting the mutant in the stomach. He lowered his weapon, apparently shocked by having actually fired.

It was the wrong decision. The group of mutants gave a collective scream that chilled Jubilee down to her bones, and loosed themselves on the guards. The first guard went down under three tall, angry male mutants, brought to the ground by their bare hands. When the other two guards turned to help their comrade, two female mutants leapt together, one knocking the gun to the side, the other clawing at his face.

Park acted quickly to prevent the third from firing, kicking the legs from under the guard. Jubilee jumped into action as well, grabbing for the gun and slamming her right elbow into the larger man's chin. He sputtered, spitting up a little blood. Jubilee used the open to pull his gun forward, and when he contracted, pulling back, she pushed, sending him to the floor. She grabbed the gun in his dazed confusion. She slammed the butt of it into his temple, knocking him out cold.

"I got him," Jubilee confirmed, looking around for Park. She turned and saw the Filipino mutant rise to his feet, grabbing the gun the second guard had let fall. He raised it and fired two shots into the man's head, blasting brains and viscera all over the clean hotel floor. He looked up at Jubilee and smiled. Behind him, the third guard was screaming in agony, his gun out of reach, as the female mutants clawed, scratched, and bit at him, blood seeping out into a puddle around his prone form. Jubilee swallowed down bile as the man begged for mercy.

Landing Bay, Air Strip, Genosha

"Start it up!" Hodge bellowed as he strode across the concrete and towards the helicopter waiting for him. "Get it moving, now!"

"Sir, we don't have any flight plan," said a man in orange, navigating around the cones delineating the path of take-off. "Are you heading out for business, or—"

Hodge grabbed the smaller man by the scruff of his neck and pulled him in. "Do you hear that?" he whispered harshly. The man in orange swallowed, and vaguely made out the sound of warning bells and a repeating female voice from below. "Those sounds? Mean there's been a breach. That means if we don't get off the ground and out of here, right now, we're all going to be caught, and torn apart by a bunch of angry mongrels."

"Mongrels?" the man in orange stuttered. "I..."

"Mutants!" Hodge roared. "We'll all be killed by mutants! Do you want that kind of death, Anderson? Or—"

Hodge's head snapped up at the sound of thousands of pounds of metal rising. The helicopter lifted itself into the air — despite the absence of a pilot.

"What the hell?" Anderson whimpered. Hodge let the smaller man drop as he watched his escape plan rise up a couple hundred feet, before hurtling over the edge of the landing bay. Hodge ran forward and looked over the edge just in time to see the helicopter slam into the waiting ocean below.

"Mr. Hodge," said a jovial voice from behind him. "Leaving so soon?"

Hodge swallowed hard before turning around. He forced himself not to cry out as he witnessed the mass of mutants before him, all led by a single, elderly man wearing an upsetting smile.

"I would certainly hope not," said Magneto in a booming voice intended for his audience as much as Hodge. "The mongrels are out of their cages, Mr. Hodge. And we are not done with you."

TO BE CONTINUED