Continuing to use their powers to save mankind, the X-men are finding that they are underneath worse prejudice than ever before.

Ever since the launching of the Mutant Response Division and the Wide Awake Project, mutants have been hunted for simply using their powers out of self-defense. This situation is proving to escalate as attacks from the hate group known as the Friends of Humanity become worse.

And these attacks are proving to affect Hank "Beast" McCoy the worst. Hank holds belief in pacifism and using peace and reason. Nonetheless, he's finding himself in a worse situation especially since the eye clinic he volunteers at has gotten attacked by the FOH. However, at the eye clinic, he holds a close, and little more than professional, relationship with his patient, Carly Anne Crocker, who seemingly does not know he is a mutant due to her blindness.

However, after the attack on the eye clinic, Hank was held in MRD custody, and faced his taste of even worse discrimination after Tony and Warren bailed him out. Now, Logan "Wolverine" Howlett is exacting revenge for his friend by acting as a mole inside the FOH base.

Issue 55: Beauty and the Beast Part 2

Claremont Clinic for the Blind

It was now the next day after the FOH attack on the eye clinic, and Hank "Beast" McCoy found himself going back to the Claremont Clinic for the Blind to check in on Carly. Her surgery was going to be tomorrow, and he wanted to make sure that everyone at the clinic was alright. Ignoring the stares and whispers from the staff, he headed to Alec's office. Opening the door, he allowed himself inside.

"Spend our midday sweat our midnight oil; we tire the night in thought, the day in toil," Hank said with a smile towards Alec.

Alec let out a sigh as he got up from his desk, feeling absolutely saddened over what he was about to tell his colleague and friend.

"Hank," he started to say.

"How's Carly?" Hank asked in concern for their patient. Ever since the attack on the clinic by the Friends of Humanity, he'd worried sick over Carly and her well-being. She was one of the many blessings and good things that he had in his life; part of it was because she couldn't see him. He always feared if Carly saw him, she'd be in fear like so many others had been when they'd first laid their eyes on Hank.

"Fine . . . she's fine Hank." Alec was very hesitant to tell Hank what was happening. "I hate to say this, but –"

"What? What is it?" Hank asked anxiously.

"Hank, after what happened yesterday, the hospital board told me that . . . they're worried about the patients, and . . ." Alec felt terrible for needing to be the bearer of bad news.

Hank let out a sigh. He saw this coming since the day before. "Having a mutant around would only make matters worse. But – But what about all of the work that we have done that has helped so many? Isn't it more imperative than catering to the bigots who detest and fear what they do not comprehend?" he asked his friend, crestfallen.

"There is something else," whispered Alec, leaning a hand onto his friend's shoulder to show him what he was talking about. They could overhear Carly's angry, prejudice father shouting at the director.

"I am not about to allow some filthy mutant to touch my daughter!"

Hank let out a disheartened sigh. "Carly's father," he said in realization. "I want to do what is best for Carly. I will leave."

"Hank, I am so sorry," Alec whispered; a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. Hank made his way into the waiting room, where Carly was awaiting him. He figured that the least he could do was say goodbye to her.

"Hank?" she asked. "Is that you?"

"How did you know?" he asked her.

"Your aftershave lotion," Carly told him around a smile and a giggle.

"Oh, do you like it?" Hank asked her.

"Very much; a girl could get used to it," Carly told him with a humored grin. Getting up from her seat when she could sense Hank close by her, she proceeded to wrap her arms around him in a hug. "I am so glad that you are alright. I was worried. When that anti-mutant group attacked the other day . . ."

"Wait, how did you know?" Hank was shocked by the fact that Carly, a blind young woman, was so aware of the world around her.

"Hank, just because I cannot see, doesn't mean that I do not know what is going on around me," Carly told him.

"And you do not care?" Hank asked her.

"Of course not," Carly assured him gently.

Hank let out a sigh. He knew that what he was about to say was going to break Carly's heart. He could hardly bear the thought of seeing this woman that he so deeply cared about getting hurt.

"Carly," he said. "I am sorry, but, I cannot be here tomorrow for your operation."

"What? Why?" Carly sounded extremely disheartened, as Hank figured that she would.

"I – I'm needed on another case," he said to her quickly. "Dr. Bolson is an outstanding surgeon. You'll have the best care possible here."

"I know," Carly whispered, feeling the tears coming to her eyes as she felt Hank resting a hand onto her shoulder.

"I promise, I will try to visit you as soon as possible," Hank told her. But, before he left, he pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head. Looking back at her, he overheard Carly saying that he was the one that she had wanted to see when she was done with her treatment. As the big, blue, beast of a man walked out of the room, he swallowed back his tears back and hid his pain from his former colleagues, who continued to look on and whisper amongst themselves.

X-Corporation Tower – Hank's Room

For the past few hours, Hank found himself hanging upside down from the ceiling in his bedroom, eyes closed and his hands folded in prayer. While he did consider himself to be a man of science that did not mean he denied that there was a God out there.

As he continued to hang there, Hank reflected on everything that had happened in the past two days. The fact that the Friends of Humanity had been as brazen as to attack his place of work that he worked at part time was something that brought Beast a huge sense of discomfort. Deciding he needed to write his thoughts down, he jumped down from the ceiling and proceeded to sit at his desk and open up his journal.

Journal Entry 599,

The attacks being planted by the Friends of Humanity over the past week are proving that humans are continuing to fear and abhor the very things that they cannot comprehend. There are some, such as myself, who consider mutation to be the next step towards evolution. We are simply people with gifts. But, my powers never feel like a gift.

No matter what I hide behind . . . a trench coat and hat, an image inducer watch . . . I will never feel normal. I will never feel human. For years, I had to take abuse and ridicule from those around me. At first, my powers were something that truly made me feel special. They'd made me a star on the football field especially in high school. But, when the serum I had been using to suppress my powers started to become less effective and I'd started to become covered in blue fur, I became something many became afraid of. Luckily, Reed Richards recognized my talent, and recruited me to be his lab assistant. Reed had been a saving grace for me, because he made it clear he did not care whether I was a mutant or not. He employed me based on my capability.

However, when Tony and Xavier had approached me about being employed by X-Corporation, it had been an opportunity I could hardly refuse. I am living in a place that is considered a safe haven, but, I still feel as though I do not fit in. Nonetheless, when Warren, Bobby, Scott and Jean became part of X-Corporation, I'd realized there were those who were even less fortunate than me. We now have Anna-Marie, Kurt and Kitty as well; Kurt feels the need to hide his appearance from those out there. Though I can say, for him, he is the one that truly does need to hide, since for years, he'd been treated as though he was the devil by those back in Germany.

With me, it just seems as though everyone that I grow close to gets hurt. My mutation did not even happen by choice. It had happened after my father and mother, who'd worked at a chemical plant, had been exposed to deadly radiation poisoning. It permanently changed my father and mother's genetics to make me a mutant. Ever since then, I've been treated differently, and now, my getting fired from the eye clinic and being told to keep away from Carly is only proving just how truly cursed it sometimes feels to be a mutant.

Carly was one of the few good things that came to me in my life. I feel as though she truly does care for me, nevertheless I cannot be around her. I cannot risk putting this woman in danger, no matter how much I truly love her. She's so pure, a good person, and she didn't allow anything to taint that, including her bigoted father. I understand that he is just simply afraid for his daughter's safety and that he is taking it out on me, but then again this is not how I wish to live. Nonetheless there are also those days where I crave to interact with humans in a peaceful way . . . if only that were possible for me to do.

Hank closed his journal and proceeded to sit on his bed, closing his eyes as his thoughts continued to overwhelm him. That was when he could hear Kurt and Jean coming into the room. Kurt had his image inducer turned off, allowing his true appearance to be exposed. Jean was carrying a tray of food that clearly had been cooked by Ororo.

"I thought you might be hungry, Hank," Jean said softly, the sympathy in her voice evident.

"No, thank you," he insisted.

Walking over to his bedroom mirror, he felt his eyes sting with tears as he took in the sight of what he looked like to the world. Letting out a roar of anger and pain, he threw a punch at the mirror, causing the glass to shatter and fall to the floor and his knuckle to begin to bleed. Jean went over to him, grabbing the first-aid kit Hank kept in his room at all costs in case of emergency. She proceeded to disinfect the laceration and wrapped the gauze around Beast's hand, rubbing his knuckle.

"It's Carly, isn't it?" Jean asked, knowingly. Her eyes were filled with tears on Hank's behalf. To see other people around her hurting emotionally was something that Jean did not take very well.

"Why Jean?" Hank asked attempting to swallow the lump out of his throat. "Why did this have to happen to me? Why can't I be normal? It's not fair."

"Herr McCoy," whispered Kurt. "As X-men ve have to zhink of hov our gifts can benefit zhe vorld."

Beast looked at Kurt incredulously, shaking his head. "Gifts?" he asked the elf seriously. "I cannot be close to any human. I cannot take a chance of endangering them. My parents . . . and now-now the woman I love."

"Hank, I-I did not know that Carly meant that much to you," Jean said sympathetically, calling him by his real name rather than his codename. But she could understand why Hank cared so deeply and took it personally. She had been an outcast from society and left in isolation for years. She craved to be able to interact with other people. She hadn't had the luxury of being able to do that for nine years. Subsequently, to see Hank needing to suffer through that, it broke her heart.

"It was so much easier when I was consumed with my work. I could pretend that what other people thought of me did not matter," he explained.

"Vell, hov does she feel about you?" Kurt asked him.

"I-I think that she cares for me," Hank said softly.

"But-But that's a good thing . . . you're deserving of having something like that," Jean said gently, rubbing his huge shoulder.

"No, I won't allow her to be with me. It's too dangerous for her," the blue beast of a mutant insisted.

"Maybe you should allow her to decide that for herself," Jean suggested comfortingly, tears making their way down her face. "Hank, you should talk to her. You owe that to her, and you should allow her to see you as you are." She leaned in and pressed a sympathetic kiss against his cheek, before getting up to leave the room.

"I'm vith Jean, mein friend," Kurt said. "Honestly . . . vhen I vas vith zhe circus, I pitied zhose who stood zhere laughing at me, as zhough I vere a joke to zhem. Hank, it's clear zhat if Carly knows you are a mutant, zhen she's already decided zhat she's accepted you for vho it is zhat you are."

Claremont Clinic for the Blind – The Next Day

Hank ultimately decided to take Jean and Kurt's advice to heart and go see Carly after her operation was finished. How Jean and Kurt had so much wisdom, and they were considerably younger than he was, he had no idea how it was possible. He could only assume that part of it was Jean's aptitude for empathy which stemmed from her ability to read people's minds.

When Hank arrived at the eye clinic and went into the recovery room, he mentally prepared himself for the worst to come. He knew how highly unaccepting Carly's father was towards mutants, but he felt this need to see Carly. He felt the need to be there when she was able to have her vision. Walking into the recovery room, he took notice of Alec there with Carly, ready to cut her bandages off to reveal the results to the doctors and nurses there.

"Dr. McCoy, what are you doing here?" asked one of the nurses in a nervous tone, biting her lip. She personally did not have a problem with mutants, but she knew of people in the hospital who did.

"Now, now, Alexandra; Hank is the one partially responsible for coming up with this treatment. He should be here to see the final results," Alec said, nodding at Hank in understanding. He knew how much this meant to Hank and Carly. In fact, Carly had been asking for Hank since before the operation even began.

"But, what about –?" Alexandra asked, nervous about what Carly's father would think if he walked in the room.

"Trust me," Alec said sternly, grabbing the scissors to cut the bandages shrouding Carly's eyes off. Hank knelt in front of the young woman, anxious to see the results. Once the bandages were off, Carly opened her eyes, revealing them.

They were green – and very green at that. Carly's eyes landed on Hank, and she just simply smiled at him, letting him silently know how happy she was to be able to see him for the first time. In fact, she didn't even seem to care that he was huge, and covered in fur at that. Hank smiled widely at her.

"I am glad to see that this was a success," Alec said with a smile, leaning a hand on Hank's shoulder as a form of congratulating him.

"Yes," Carly said with a smile, leaning a hand against Hank's face and taking in the sight before her of the man that she had grown to so deeply care about for so long, but hadn't been able to see. However, the moment of joy between Hank and Carly was cut shorter than they both could have hoped for when her father walked into the room, enraged at the sight of his daughter and the big, blue beast staring at each other as if they were a married couple.

"What the hell is going on, Dr. Bolson?" shouted Carly's father in anger.

"Now, now, sir, I can assure you that Dr. McCoy here isn't causing any harm to your daughter," Alec said calmly. "If you want to cause a scene and yell and scream, you can take it outside, Mr. Crocker."

"Do not tell me what to do!" Carly's father retorted angrily, glaring at Alec. "I agreed to the procedure. But I didn't agree to allow that filthy mutant around my daughter!"

"Dad, stop this at once!" Carly snapped, embarrassed by her father's behavior. She looked at Hank to silently apologize to him for her father's outburst.

"Sir, please, just calm down; if you continue acting like this, I will have to ask you to leave!" Alec insisted.

"Do not tell me to calm down, Doctor!" spat the angry, middle-aged man.

"Sir –!" Alec tried to speak again in an effort to help the situation. He wasn't about to allow somebody to speak to Hank like that. In fact, Alec was shocked that Hank wasn't going to into a rage and tearing the walls apart for the things being said to him at that moment. Alec didn't know if he would ever have Hank's level of self-control if someone disrespected him in that fashion.

"It is alright. I will leave," Hank said calmly, getting up to leave the room. However, Alec wasn't about to allow Hank to feel as though his attempt at reasoning was a complete waste.

"Hank!" Alec called out to him.

"No, Alec. I do not think that it would ever be possible to get through to a person like that," Hank said bitterly. Just as he was about to make his exit, they could hear another one of the nurses screaming.

"DR. BOLSON! DR. MCCOY!" cried the voice of the nurse, Katie. "GET IN HERE, QUICKLY!"

Hank and Alec quickly made their way back into the recovery room, to somehow find it completely vandalized. Worst of all, Carly was nowhere to be found, but the words "FOR HUMANITY" were graffiti on the wall in bright red letters.

'The Friends of Humanity,' Hank thought angrily. Finally, he'd had enough. This was the last straw for him. "I'm going after her," he said to Alec quickly. He jumped out of the opened window to get into his car to look for the Friends of Humanity headquarters, as well as contact the X-men. Once he was in his car, he proceeded to make a phone call to X-Corporation Tower's emergency line. Luckily, Scott was there to pick up the phone.

"Scott!" he said.

"What is it, Beast?" Scott asked.

"The Friends of Humanity snatched my patient from the eye clinic, Carly – they somehow know of my connection to her!" Hank said.

"Kitty, when you were kidnapped by the Friends of Humanity a week ago, where was it that they brought you?" asked Scott.

"The Lobdell Veterans building," Kitty replied.

"Okay, thank you. I am heading over there," Beast said, hanging up the comm link.

X-Corporation Tower – War Room

"Man, I still can't believe Beast managed to get a girl, and I cannot even find myself a partner," Bobby quipped as he slipped into his Iceman uniform.

"I can't believe it either," said Kitty, pulling her cowl up and over her face.

"Well, kids, let me tell you; I still do not have any luck getting with Pepper, so the fact that Beast can get a girl, I'm a little envious," Tony quipped from where he sat at the computer in the war room.

That was the moment they could hear somebody else on the comms like. "Anybody there? Cyke . . . Jeannie?"

"Wolverine?" asked Jean. "Where are you?"

"I'm taking the garbage out. I'm at the Friends of Humanity HQ. Meet me at the Lobdell Veterans Housing," Logan explained.

"Beast is headed over there we are on our way now. Beast thinks that they kidnapped a young woman he knows," Scott explained.

"Beast has a girl?" asked Logan. "Man . . . I never would have thought. Don't worry, I'll find her. Also, is Stark there?"

"Yeah, Logan, I'm here what do you need?" Tony asked.

"I need you to do a favor fer me. How good are you at computer hacking?"

"Hank Pym and I once cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare," Tony said. "Is that a serious question, my friend?"

"Well, I'll need you to go into the dark web, and go fishing around fer some information, on an old buddy of mine," Logan said softly. "Let's just say, I've got my suspicions . . . I just wanna confirm whether or not they're correct. Jeannie, bring the portable Cerebro projector too; we could use that."

Lobdell Veteran's Housing

For Logan "Wolverine" Howlett, being in the Friends of Humanity HQ was something that he never thought he'd be doing. But, just being in there allowed him to get an idea of what exactly the FOH's goal was. He remembered the conversation he'd gotten into earlier that day with Graydon Creed and Alyssa Risman, who had asked him if he was interested in joining. But, when Logan had heard what Graydon's last name was, that further struck a chord in him.

"Say . . . I knew somebody a few years back by the name of Creed," he'd told Graydon. "Working coal mines in Kentucky?"

"Oh, no, that couldn't have been my family. We were all in Canada then," Graydon had said.

"So was I, bub, so was I," Logan had said. It had been more than enough evidence for the feral mutant to be able to piece everything together. Once he'd learned of that information, he knew that he had to contact the X-men about what he had found out, and also ask Tony to confirm whether or not this theory was right. But, upon learning that Hank's love interest had been kidnapped, Logan knew that he had to find her too. Before he knew it, as he made his way to the very back of the building, where he knew Carly probably was, he could hear the sounds of screaming, yelling, and animal-like growls. Clearly, Hank had just arrived.

'Well, they're gonna have one heck of a time together,' Logan thought as he made his way to the back room. Popping his claw out, he cut his entrance open and proceeded to kick the door in. He walked in to see Carly tied down to a chair. Walking over to her, he proceeded to cut her loose.

"Who are you?" she asked him as Logan heard Jean's telepathic confirmation that the X-men and Tony were outside the FOH HQ.

"Friend of Hank's," he explained quietly. "C'mon, let's get movin'." He led Carly out of the room, to find Beast holding off the FOH guards. He smirked. "Let's get 'em, furball!" he announced, running in like a bat out of hell and ramming two members into the wall. However, that was when he saw Graydon Creed and Alyssa Risman making their way around the corner.

"What the hell is going on?" shouted Risman angrily. She was completely furious that a mutant had invaded the FOH base.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" shouted Creed in his usual enraged tone.

"How's about you fuck off, Creed?" Logan popped out his middle claw at Creed, his symbol for a "fuck you."

"You're a – a!" Creed started to go white as a sheet.

"What's the matter? Daddy's boy don't like claws?" Logan asked heatedly.

"What is he talking about?" asked Risman.

"Cyke, that's yer cue, kiddo!" Logan said into the comms link. A single blast of red broke through the building, blasting away the walls. Before they all knew it, a holographic image of Sabretooth appeared, as well as the voice of Tony giving a description of Sabretooth and his whereabouts from the past ten years or so.

"Name – Sabretooth, most recently seen scouting the areas of the Weapon X facility in the woods of Canada – real name, Victor Creed . . ." The description being spoken by Tony only further confirmed what Logan had suspected, and he was sure happy that he turned out to be right.

"Nice work, Stark," he commented in the comms system.

"Glad I could be of assistance, Wolverine," Tony said.

"Creed?" Risman asked in shock, glaring at him.

"No! No, I am not a mutie! I am not a freak! NO! NOOO!" Creed shouted, starting to fire his gun at the image of Sabretooth standing there before his eyes.

"Like father, like son," Logan whispered with a bitter smile as Carly embraced Hank tightly.

"I'm so glad you're alright," Hank whispered.

"I love you so much," Carly whispered back to him.

"I love you," Hank breathed out, and they proceeded to make their way out of the FOH base to see the other X-men – Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman and Shadowcat in particular – out there with Tony.

"Nice work, Logan," Marvel Girl said with a smile, leaning a hand on his shoulder. They could still hear the sounds of Creed screaming in the background. For Logan, it was quite the satisfying sound. It was music to his ears.

X-Corporation Tower – Medical Laboratory

About twenty minutes later, the X-men found that they were home at X-Corporation Tower, resting after such an overwhelming night. Exposing Graydon Creed proved to take more out of them than they could ever expect. But, for Hank, he was the most exhausted.

Hank found that he was laying on one of the beds in the medical labs, resting with Carly sitting loyally at his side, her hand in his. She found that she was content just being there with him. However, her moment of concord was interrupted by Cecilia Reyes walking into the room.

"Carly, you've got a phone call. It's from your father," she explained.

Carly nodded her thanks and took the phone from Cecilia, answering the call.

"Hi, Dad," she said softly.

"Oh good God . . . Carly, when I saw that it was the FOH who took you I-I got so worried," her father was saying. "Are you alright?"

"I'm okay," Carly assured him.

"Did that mutant . . .?" her father started to ask.

"No, Dad . . . Hank, he-he came to save me," Carly explained. "He came there looking for me so that he could get me out of there. He's a good man."

Carly's father took time to consider his daughter's words. To hear that Hank McCoy – Beast, had gone out of his way to save his only child was very telling to the prejudice man. He still did not like mutants. Of course, he thought that they were dangerous. But, hearing that Hank had saved Carly was something that greatly surprised him.

"Carly . . . I-I'm sorry, about what I said earlier. This McCoy man . . . do you like him?"

"Yes, yes I do," Carly said. "He cares about me, too."

"Well . . . I still don't like mutants, but, if he is who you like, there's nothing I can do about it. Tell him he has my blessing," her father said softly.

"Thanks, Dad," Carly whispered. "I'm going to stay with him a while. I'll see you at home. I love you." Hanging up the phone, she continued to sit there, watching as Hank rested on the bed. She smiled softly as she leaned over and kissed his forehead, giving his hand a squeeze.

Up next: Age of Ultron Part 1