The reporter stood strait and alert as he watched the studio aid silently count down the last five seconds with his fingers just to one side of the camera.

The small monitor next to the camera showed the anchorwoman doing the reporters introduction.

And then, right on cue…

"Thank you Nancy!" The reporter began. "And good day to everyone out there. Thank you for joining us."

The reporter smiled and exuded a quiet authority. "It's not everyday that a reporter gets the opportunity to present a story of such relevance and impact as this one. What you're about to see may startle or alarm you, so let me begin by saying that – as of the airing of this broadcast – the danger to Britain and to ourselves has passed. Thanks in no small part to a group of extraordinarily gifted people who I've the honor of introducing you to today via this broadcast."

All across Britain and the world people exchanged smiles, bumped each other affectionately with their elbows and listening intently.

"A group of people who have taken the name … Excalibur."

Back at the lighthouse the members of Excalibur flooded out on to the deck of the lighthouse.

They lined the rail and faced the unknown.

Widget hovered, emitting the strange flares and swaying in time with the pulse of the growing energy cloud.

"Vhat is it?" Kurt asked.

"Frightening." Alistaire volunteered.

"Glowy." Tabitha observed.

Forge looked upon it with his astral eyes. "It's a portal." He said. "Massive. As though it's being created on a cosmic scale rather than a personal one like Illyana's."

"What comes through a portal that size?" Brian asked.

And there was a great crash like that of thunder from within the cloud and as it sounded the cloud became reflective in a flash like that of lightning, but mirroring worlds other than their own.

In some they were there, standing at the rail. In others they were not. But always there was the lighthouse.

"What's it doing?" Lucy asked, almost intimately close to Forge.

"It's searching…" Forge announced. I think… "Maybe for a particular world or dimension…"

"Ours?" Kurt asked.

"Possibly." Forge shrugged. It was pretty … but he was hungry. I should have eaten before the 'show'…

The anomaly flashed several times, each time reflecting alien versions of themselves staring back at them.

"This is totally creepy." Brian noted. "You want me to … fly out there... and maybe … hit that robot or … something.?"

Kurt cocked his head. "It's an option…" He admitted.

And then a great flash came that seemed to fill the sky for a full minute.

The lighthouse they saw reflected back at them had steel plates instead of windows, with searchlights and weapons mounted on the platform.

They stared in awe at it.

Scott stood dressed in black on the alternate deck with Jean in a matching uniform. Another version of Alistaire stood dejectedly apart from them, but at the ready in case he was called upon.

"Amazing." Forge whispered.

Alex stood, in black and red, at Scott's side with his arms crossed as though angry.

Scott pointed at them and mouthed the words. "Is that Kurt?"

And then there came a great explosion of color that obscured the other lighthouse.

Forge alone stood his ground while the others reflexively ducked slightly. He heard the cry of a hawk in his ear and his vision sharpened, then refocused in to the explosion.

"It's a girl." He whispered. "She's falling out of the sky."

"Vhere?" Kurt asked.

"She's look like a shooting star…" Forge said with a pause. "… There!" And he pointed just as a distant streak lit the sky.

Kurt swallowed hard. "Brian! Fly out and save her!"

Brian looked panicked. "I can't catch her, I might hurt her! I…"

Kurt jumped on to Brian's back. "Fine. Fly." He told him.

And Brian reached out, forcing his concentration to lift him off the ground and it did, slowly.

"Relax." Kurt told him. "And you'll do better. Mutation is natural. It works best if you relax."

And indeed, Brian did begin to gain speed as they streaked out together across the sky.

"I'll get the first aid kit." Forge offered.

"No." Lucy interrupted. "Keep watching." I know I can't see anything… "I'll go."

And Kitty swallowed in fear.

"Good luck." Forge whispered as they streaked off in to the sky. And heaven help you… A portal that size for one girl is savagely wrong somehow…

Unless…

He swallowed.

Unless she's a being of … incredible power…

Back on channel twelve they cut to an interview of Alistaire.

"Hello." He smiled. "I'm Alistaire Stuart. I'm the Government Liaison to the Mutant Advisor."

"And how did you get this job?" The reporter asked him.

Alistaire's mind had raced with explanations… but he answered only. "I got lucky." With a rather charming grin. "I do think that I was expected to fail. Just as Kurt was expected to quit – because of the harassment. But… I hung on."

"And it was a good thing too." The reported said, the relief in his tone obvious. "Would you like to explain the documents you've given me?"

And Alistaire nodded. "That's the charter for the management of the Mutant Advisor position. It details the power and authorities of the position."

In his loft, Sebastian Shaw dropped his glass and his jaw at the same time. No!

"Which are?" The reporter asked.

A smile broke quickly across Alistaire's face. "Only a shadow of what they were yesterday." He quipped.

"What?" Emma said out loud to no one in particular. "No!"

"That's right." Alistaire laughed. "Our first official act was to cut the power of our own office down to a bare minimum."

"That's an odd act." The reporter told him.

"Ahhh." Alistaire smiled. "Not if you happened to discover that the position of Mutant Advisor was created by politically motivated business interests who sought to gain military authority here in Britain."

He opened the book and held the page open to the camera.

Alistaire smiled. "And they detailed exactly how to so – right here – in our charter."

He turned the book to face him and read aloud.

"And be it known that there shall be no agency, person or organization responsible for the oversight of actions of the position when it is deemed that mutant-human relations are threatened or could result in violence."

Alistaire looked at that camera. "Which is, arguably, always. But to which we've added the following…" And he pulled out a note card he had made himself. "Except the Relative Actions Committee now formed specifically for that purpose."

And all across Britain… those who had plotted, schemed and eagerly awaited the power of Kurt's position watched that dream slip away in to nothingness.

"So before this provision… Anyone holding the title of Mutant Advisor…" The reporter prodded.

"Anyone holding the title of Mutant Advisor could do whatever they had wanted. Right up to raising their own army and seizing the very streets we live on."

"Why would anyone write such a thing in to law?" The reporter asked. "Surely the abuse of such an office would have to be obvious."

"Well then…" Alistaire smiled at him. "That's a part of what made it a conspiracy now, isn't it?"