In a clinic, Beast was working on his latest achievement.
"You did it again, old buddy." Alec, his fellow colleague, praised.
"We did it, Alec." Beast reiterated. "The progress of medical science, much like the construction of a great cathedral, is the work of my hands. And I withhold my exaltation until the treatment is proved effective."
As Beast continued to talk, two more doctors walked in and stared at Beast with uncertainty before Alec gave them a look to leave.
"Shall we look in on our patient?" Alec suggested.
"Yes!" Beast agreed. "Of course!"
A blind woman was sitting in her room with a pair of headphones on her head. She took them off just as Beast and Alec entered.
"Hello?" She asked.
"It's just me, Carly." Alec said. "Dr. Bohlson."
Carly smiled. "Dr. Bohlson! Is Dr. McCoy with you?"
"Good day, Carly." Beast greeted shyly.
"Hi, Hank." She held her hands out for Hank to grab.
"Everything is set for the operation, Carly." Alec said. "Your tests look excellent."
"What will it be like to actually see?" Carly asked innocently. "Do you really think I will?"
"Dr. Bohlson and I have been working on this treatment for a long time." Beast replied. "We are very hopeful."
"You'll be there, won't you, Hank?" Carly asked hopefully.
"Yes, of course." Beast would have said more when they all heard the sound of an explosion.
"What the?" Alec exclaimed as he went to the door to check it out, but when he opened the door, smoke poured in.
"Alec! Shut the door!" Beast slammed the door shut as the two coughed.
"What is it?" Carly was worried. "Tell me what's going on."
Beast scooped her up in his arms. "It's all right." He told her. "I'm here. Hang on." He jumped out of a window and set Carly back on her feet.
"What's happening? Hank, why are they screaming?" Carly asked as Beast jumped back up to rescue Alec.
"It's alright." Beast said as he carried the blind woman.
Creed was leading an anti-human march when he spotted Beast. "There he is!" He pointed at Beast. "Henry McCoy. Holding a human girl! Get his filth away from her!"
A group of F.O.H. members started to approach the two as the crowd chanted.
"They're evil. All of them."
"Yeah. Let's go get them!"
"No more mutants!"
"No more mutants!"
Beast gritted his teeth at the bigots before handing Carly over to Alec. "Alec, get her out of here! Quickly!"
"Hank! Where are you going?" Carly felt concern for the kind doctor. "I don't want you hurt!"
"Mutant!" One F.O.H. member snarled.
"Yes, I am." Beast confirmed as he backed away from the approaching mob. "Perhaps you self-appointed social engineers don't realize the crucial role mutation plays in species evolution."
"Get him!" A F.O.H. member cried as they went after him.
Beast grabbed two of them and held them up. "I'm sorry, gentlemen. Your anger at the inexorable alienation of present-day life is sadly misdirected."
He threw them back at the others, knocking them over like bowling pins.
Sirens were heard in the distance.
"The cops!" One bigot panicked as they all fled in fear of being arrested.
Police cars arrived along with firetrucks.
Back at the institute, Wolverine was raging over the recent attack.
"Attacking a hospital for the blind!" He slammed his fist on one of the keyboards in the War Room. "Just leave me alone with those clowns for five minutes. Just five minutes!"
He started to roar in rage as he went to leave.
"Wolverine!" Jean scolded. "Stop! You know that we can't..."
"X-Men never seek revenge." Wolverine droned bitterly. He heard it a thousand times. "I know! So? Do we just let them get away with it?"
"No." Jean replied. "But we have to approach this delicately."
"Delicately?" Wolverine asked.
"The Friends of Humanity thrive on public hatred of mutants." Jean pointed out. "We can't help their cause by appearing to be on a rampage."
"Alright, Jean, for now." He complied reluctantly. "But I'm going after them! And if we don't find a kinder, gentler way to shut them down, there's going to be a few less Friends of Humanity around stinking up the planet."
"That's fair." Danny said as Wolverine left the War Room.
"Danny!" Jean cried indignantly.
Danny held his hands up. "Kidding. I was just kidding." He started to leave the War Room as Jean sighed.
"Where are you, professor?"
"I have often thought about what it would be like to regain the use of my legs." Xavier said as he, along with Magneto and Vlad, trudged through a swamp. "But never once did I imagine myself wading through a swamp."
"Trust me, I never thought I would be placed in so many humiliating positions, but I've been proven wrong." Vlad said, remembering the time Danny shocked him with the Plasmius Maximus and sent those ghost animals after him.
Before the trio could get any further, they were all caught in a net.
A raft caught up to them, and on it was a human-sized frog.
"How the mighty have fallen!" The frog mocked.
Magneto recognized this amphibian. "Amphibius!"
"How many of these things did you make?" Vlad asked.
Amphibius jumped on a tree branch, placing him right in front of the captive Magneto. "Magneto speaks, and the Savage Land trembles!"
"Release us." Xavier demanded. "We have done you no harm."
"Were it up to me, I'd feed you to my friends." Amphibius said. "But I serve the new ruler of the Savage Land." He pulled out a high-tech blaster and shot them.
They woke up on the raft, their hands tied, and Amphibius in their faces. "Never again will we be our creator's slaves. Our new leader has given us great power."
Two plesiosaurs emerged from the swamp and roared.
"This way!" Magento cried as the three captives rolled themselves into the swamp, leaving Amphibius to deal with the plesiosaurs.
The three managed to reach land safely and get their hands free.
Exhausted, they collapsed on the ground.
Wolverine and Danny were walking down an alleyway in disguise. Both wore ballcaps and sunglasses.
Wolverine saw a door and cracked his knuckles. "Delicate, right."
"Yeah, you're as delicate as a sledgehammer." Danny told him.
Logan grabbed a trashcan and threw it at the door. "Anybody home?"
There was no answer, so Logan climbed up the fire escape and started banging on the bars. No one responded.
He then jumped down. "Delicate."
Danny raised a finger. "I'm sure there's a better way then..."
He didn't get to finish as Wolverine threw himself against the wall and fell to the ground. This made enough noise that two F.O.H. members came out.
"Over there!" He pointed to the fallen Wolverine and Danny.
"It was a filthy mutant." Logan lied.
"By the way, are you guys looking for more recruits?" Danny asked casually.
"Get them inside!" One ordered the other.
"We spend our mid-day sweat, our midnight oil." Beast met with Alec back at the hospital. "We tire the night in thought, the day in toil."
"Hank, I..." Alec didn't get to finish his sentence.
"How's Carly?" Beast asked.
"Fine." Alec said. "She's fine, Hank. I hate to say this, but well..."
"What is it?" Beast queried
"After what happened yesterday, the hospital board told me that you..." Alec tried to think of the best way to break this to his friend. "They're worried about the patients and..."
Beast sighed. "And having a mutant around will make matters worse. Alec, isn't our work more important than catering to those bigots?"
"There's another problem." Alec opened the door to the waiting room, where a man was arguing with the receptionist.
"My daughter means everything to me!" The man yelled. "I agreed to this experiment, but I will not allow some filthy mutant to touch my daughter!"
"Carly's father?" Beast guessed.
"Yes." Alec confirmed.
Beast frowned in sadness. "I want to do what's best for Carly. I'll leave."
"I'm sorry, Hank." Alec apologized.
"I know, Alec." Beast replied, but he had one request. "I just want to say goodbye."
Beast opened the door to Carly's room, where she turned her head in the direction the sound came from. "Hank? Is that you?"
The blue mutant was surprised that Carly correctly deduced that it was him. "How did you know?"
"Your aftershave lotion." She pointed out.
He smiled. "Do you like it?"
"Very much. A girl could get used to it." She got up to reach for him and placed her hands around him. "I'm so glad you're alright. I was worried. That anti-mutant group..."
Once again, Beast was surprised at Carly's knowledge. "But how did you know?"
"That you're a mutant?" Carly said. "Hank, just because I'm blind doesn't mean I don't know what's going on in the world."
Beast was relieved to hear that Carly didn't care about his mutation. "And you don't care?"
"Of course not." She assured him. "Not now, not ever."
Beast was feeling even more sad that he'd have to leave. "Carly, listen. I'm sorry, but I can't be here tomorrow for your operation."
"What?" Carly was shocked. "Why?"
"I'm needed on another case." He fibbed.
"It's okay." She said disappointedly.
"Dr. Bohlson is an outstanding surgeon." He said. "You will have the best of care."
"I know." Carly still didn't feel better.
"I promise I will visit you as soon as possible." Beast promised. "I'll be thinking of every moment tomorrow."
He left as Carly muttered something heartbreaking.
"But it was you I wanted to see."
Beast was back at the institute, looking through his family photos. Reminiscing on the good old days when he didn't have to worry about being a mutant. His mood soured when he got to the photos that showed him as his present self. Beast closed the book and tossed it to the floor.
Jean walked in with a tray of food and stopped when she saw Beast looking so miserable. "I thought you might be hungry, Hank."
"No. Thank you." Beast got up and gazed at his reflection in a mirror. With a sudden burst of rage, he grabbed his photo album and threw it at the mirror, shattering it.
"It's Carly, isn't it?" Jean stated.
"Why did this have to happen to me?" Beast bemoaned. "Why can't I be normal? It's not fair!"
Jean reminded Beast of how his mutation can help others. "We must think of how our gifts can benefit the world."
"Gifts?" Beast said in disbelief. "I can't be close to any human. I can't take a chance of endangering them. My parents. My brothers and sisters. And now... Now the woman I love."
"Hank, I had no idea she meant that much to you." Jean said.
"It was so much easier when I was consumed with my work." Beast wished that he could just get rid of his feelings so he wouldn't be experiencing this emotional pain. "I could pretend that what other people thought of me didn't matter."
"How does she feel about you?" Jean asked.
"I think she cares for me." Beast remarked.
"That's wonderful." Jean replied.
"No!" Beast had a protective look on his face. "I won't allow her to be with me. It's too dangerous."
"Maybe you should let her decide what to risk." Jean advised. "Talk to her, Hank. Give her that chance."
"It's time." Alec told Carly. He was starting to remove the bandages over her eyes when he noticed Beast walk in. "Excuse me a moment, Carly." He went up to Beast. "Hank! You can't be here."
"Hank!" Carly called in an excited voice.
"Yes, Carly." Beast wrapped his hands around hers. "I'm here."
Alec was impressed that Carly knew it was Hank. "How did you know?"
"She knows my aftershave." Beast said.
"You want me to get rid of him, Doctor?" An orderly asked Alec.
"No." Alec said. "The man who designed this treatment deserves to be here." Alec then removed the bandages as Carly started to adjust to her sight.
"Well?" Beast prompted.
Carly caressed his cheek. "You're beautiful."
Beast returned the compliment. "So are you."
"What about me?" Alec joked.
"You're alright." Carly grinned. "But why don't you have soft fur like Hank's?"
"I have a better razor." Alec cracked.
The tender moment was interrupted as Carly's father walked in.
"Carly, how are you, my..." His happiness turned into rage as he saw Beast. "You! You animal!"
"I'll leave." The furry man didn't want to start anything with Carly's father.
"You bet you'll leave!" Carly's father pointed to the door. "And now!"
Carly pleaded with her father. "Father! Don't do this!"
"I'll be in touch." Beast told her.
"No, you won't!" Her father was furious at the idea. "I won't have my daughter associating with some disgusting mistake of nature!"
Alec was disgusted by the man's behavior. "If it weren't for Dr. McCoy, your daughter's operation would not be possible!"
"He's a mutant!" The father yelled as if that explained everything.
"Father! Stop it now!" Carly demanded, getting upset with how her father was treating Beast.
Beast headed out the door. "Today is a day of joy. Carly can see. Let's leave it at that."
"Hank!" Alec followed Beast down the halls.
"Thank you, Alec." Beast thanked. "But I don't know if it will ever be possible to get through to people like that." He pulled out a small present from the pocket of his trench coat. "I forgot to give this to Carly. Would you give it to her, please?"
Alec nodded. "Of course." He returned to Carly's room only to gasp. "Hank! Come quickly!"
The X-Man raced back only to find that Carly was gone. Her father, the nurse, and the orderly were all lying on the floor. Words were spraypainted on the wall. For Humanity.
"No." Beast was now enraged by this act. "Carly! Carly!"
Carly's father coughed as Beast poured water on his face, waking him up.
"Where is Carly?" Beast interrogated. "Where did they take her?"
Carly's father realized that Beast was next to him. "Mutant! This is your fault! Carly!"
Beast had enough of him. He grabbed the man by his jacket. "It was intolerant, ignorant, mutant-hating fools like you who took your daughter! If anything happens to her, I'll..." He let go of the man, trying to keep his cool.
Beast started to head off to search for her. "I am going to find her. I suggest that if you want to see your daughter alive again, you will help me."
Her father chased after him. "Wait!"
In the auditorium, Creed was interviewing the two prospective members. "So, Mr..."
"Logan. John Logan." Logan said.
Danny tried to think of a fake name. "Tucker. Tucker Foley."
"Logan and Foley." Creed said. "How are you feeling?"
"That mutant beat me up pretty good." Logan said.
"They're animals!" Creed insulted. "Totally unpredictable."
"I'll say." Logan replied. "I was minding my own business when that filthy mutant bumped into me. Excuse me, he says. I excused him right in his face."
Creed chuckled. "I like your style, Mr. Logan." He turned his attention to Danny. "What about you, Mr. Foley?"
"This mutant named Kitty once blackmailed me into dating her so she could get back at her ex." Danny said. "She drove me crazy, but I managed to outsmart that freak."
"Right." Logan said before Creed could ask any more questions. "What is this place?"
"We are the Friends of Humanity." Creed explained. "We believe that mutants have their place. It's just not here with us, if you know what I mean."
"Extermination?" Logan inquired. "Like the rats they are?"
"Well, you'll never hear me say that in public." Creed said.
Logan examined Creed. "Say, you look familiar to me."
"Oh?" Creed replied.
"He does?" Danny asked, wondering what Logan was getting at.
"Yeah." Logan said. "I knew a guy about twenty years ago by the name of Creed. Could've been your old man."
"Really?" There was a bit of trepidation in Creed's voice.
"Yeah." Logan confirmed. "Working coal mines in Kentucky."
"Oh!" Creed was relieved for some reason. "That couldn't have been my family. We were all in Canada then."
"So was I, bub." Logan said mysteriously. "So was I."
Beast was driving through the streets with Carly's father next to him. Beast was currently speaking into his communicator. "Hello, Cyclops? This is Beast."
"We're here, Beast." Cyclops spoke from the War Room with Jean and Jubilee by his side. "What's up?"
"The Friends of Humanity kidnapped Carly." Beast informed them. "I need assistance."
"Jean and Jubilee are here with me." Cyclops said. "We're ready to help!"
"Jubilee, where was the FOH headquarters Morph sent you to?" Beast questioned.
"It's the abandoned Veteran's building." Jubilee answered.
"Meet me there." Beast ended the communication and headed off in that direction.
"Let's go." Jean said as the X-Men were about to leave.
"Hey!" Wolverine chimed in from his communicator. "War Room! Can anybody hear me?"
"Where are you, Wolverine?" Jean asked.
"I'm babysitting a bunch of mutant-hating gutter trash." Wolverine said. He and Danny were currently hiding in a storage closet.
"If you don't want Wolverine to shred them to pieces, get everybody down here to the old Veteran's building right away." Danny said.
"Beast is almost there, and we're on our way." Cyclops replied. "Beast thinks they're holding a young woman he knows."
"Beast has a girl?" Logan smirked. "Well, well, will wonders never cease?"
"Hey, you're just jealous that Beast has more luck with the ladies than you do." Danny jested, making Wolverine roll his eyes.
"Don't worry, I'll find her." Wolverine promised the others. "And listen, I need the portable Cerebro projector and a file disk on an old buddy of mine."
"Why?" Danny asked.
Wolverine smirked. "It's a surprise."
Creed was currently interrogating Carly, who was tied to a chair. "So how long have you known this, Dr. McCoy?"
"You bigot." Carly disparaged the man. "I don't need to answer any of your questions."
Creed continued as if he hadn't heard her. "I understand he was your doctor. But he's more than that, isn't he?" He leaned in closer to her. "You're more than friends, aren't you?"
"Leave me alone!" Carly demanded.
"Don't you know what monsters they are?" Creed couldn't believe that this woman would willingly spend her time around a mutant. "They're evil! All of them! They and all who associate with them must be exterminated!"
Beast climbed through a window into the old veteran's building. As he turned around a corner, he got ambushed by a bunch of F.O.H. members.
"Come on!" One hollered to the others.
Beast growled.
In another room, two F.O.H. members were playing cards when Danny and Logan walked in.
"Hey, fellas! Where's Creed?" Logan asked.
"Yeah, we have a couple of questions for him." Danny added.
"He's busy." One of the men grunted.
Meanwhile, Beast was fighting his way through the group of racists as an alarm was set off.
"Intruder on four! All security report! Intruder on four!"
The men playing cards took off to deal with the intruder, leaving Danny and Logan alone.
"Isn't that nice?" Logan joked. "Looks like my new friends will get to meet some of my old friends."
Danny snickered. "Hey, maybe we can all go out for a round of mini golf when this is all over."
They approached a door that was locked, so Wolverine was about to cut off the knob when Danny grabbed his arm.
"You know I can phase us through the door, right?" Danny reminded him.
Logan shrugged. "Mine's more fun."
Danny released his arm. "If you say so."
Wolverine proceeded to cut off the knob and burst in to find Creed and Carly.
"No!" Carly was shouting at Creed when Creed noticed the two.
"What are you doing here?" He snarled. "New members aren't allowed in here!"
"Let the girl go, Creed." Logan said.
"And no one gets hurt." Danny said. "Except for your friends upstairs."
Creed glared at the two. "How dare you? You have no right to..."
Wolverine pulled out his claws. "These give me plenty of rights."
"You..." Creed was terrified. "You're a..." He backed away, pulled out a gun, and fired, but it missed. "Stay back, you mutant garbage!"
"What's the matter, Creed?" Wolverine taunted. "Daddy's boy doesn't like claws?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Creed stammered.
"Neither do I." Danny said as he phased Carly through the rope.
"Oh." Wolverine flashed his teeth. "I don't have a familiar look to you?" He took off his sunglasses.
"Shut up! Shut up!" Creed shouted.
"Mr. Creed!" An F.O.H. member came in. "That mutant from the hospital broke in! He's busted up half the men!"
Wolverine grabbed the man and threw him at Creed.
"Who are you?" Carly asked Logan and Danny.
"Just say Hank sent us." Danny simply said.
They were about to leave the room when they ended up running into Beast.
"Carly!" Beast rasped out weakly as he fell to the floor.
Carly went to his side. "Hank!"
"Look, this is all very touching, but we gotta get out of here." Wolverine lifted Beast over his shoulders as he groaned under the weight. "Beast, you gotta cut down on those snacks, pal."
"You sure the excess weight isn't coming from all the fur on him?" Danny bantered as they all went looking for the exit when they were all surrounded by F.O.H. members carrying guns.
"Uh-oh." Wolverine said. "Looks like we took a wrong turn."
"I guess this means we didn't get into the club." Danny joshed. "Ah well, their dental plan was horrible anyway."
"Well, Mr. Logan and Mr. Foley." Creed came up to them. "Since you hate mutants so much, I think I'll let you watch while I put one out of his misery!"
"No!" Carly cried.
"Hold on to me." Danny whispered to Logan. "I can turn us intangible and invisible, and we can get out of here."
Logan shook his head. "Not until I get that hologram player."
"You serious?" Danny scoffed. He relented at Wolverine's determined look. "Fine, I'll just turn us all intangible then."
"There was no need for that, as Scott's optic blast came through the wall, causing the men to stumble and fall to the ground.
"I'd still like to know what Wolverine wants with a hologram." Scott said from outside.
"Weird, Wolverine using his head, and Beast going berserk." Jubilee said as she activated the projector. What's the world coming to?" She pressed a few more buttons. "Got it!"
A hologram of Sabretooth appeared in front of the gathering in the building.
"The mutant Sabretooth." Xavier's voice said. "Last seen in Baffin Island region of Canada."
"No!" Creed was getting anxious. "Get it away! Turn it off! Stay away from me!" He fired his gun at Sabretooth, but it only went through the hologram.
"You do know that's a hologram, right?" Danny asked, wondering how low Creed's IQ was.
'He's as simple as Dash was.' Danny thought.
"Home: Edmonton, Alberta." Xavier's narration continued. "Real name..."
Creed had a horrified look on his face and tried to get rid of it, but he couldn't. "No!"
"Graydon Creed, Senior." Xavier's voice revealed.
A F.O.H. member was shocked. "Graydon Creed, Senior?"
"Like father, like son." Wolverine said.
"No, way!" Danny was completely bamboozled by this turn of events. "The mutant hater is the son of a mutant." Danny then compared Creed to Sabretooth. "I can actually see a resemblance. Creed has his father's sneer."
"What are you looking at?" Creed boiled. "I hate him! I'm not like him! I'm normal! Get out of here! All of you!" The prejudiced group left, shooting Creed looks of disgust. "I'm not like him! I'm normal! I'm not like him!"
The heroes left Creed alone to have his mental breakdown as he tried to shoot the hologram.
"You are not my father! You are not my father! You are not my father!"
"Scratch one, friend." Wolverine said as they met with the other X-Men.
Beast was walking Carly home. "Now that you see what my life is like, I hope you will understand what I have to tell you."
"Hank, please don't." Carly begged quietly.
"We have to face it." Beast told her. "I am a mutant in a world that fears and despises my kind. I thought for a moment we could live in that world together, but I know now that we cannot. Someday, with work and hope, the world will change. Until then, if you care for me as much as I care for you, you'll understand why we must part."
Carly's father pulled up next to them.
Beast kissed her forehead. "Carry my love with you always." Carly gave him one last hug and turned to her father.
"Honey! I'm so glad you're alright." He embraced his daughter happily.
"I will be." Carly said, fighting back tears.
Her father then regarded Beast. "As for you, how can I ever thank you, Dr. McCoy?" He held his hand out to his daughter's rescuer.
Beast shook his hand. "This is a beginning."
The father and daughter headed back home as Beast watched on.
Perhaps one day they will be together.