[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Future Betrayed
(future flashback)
Bishop, Randall and Malcolm hunt Mountjoy and they corner him leaving only one escape route where Shard is waiting. The villain underestimates Bishop’s ambitious sister and gets close enough that she can nail him with one of her force blasts. Nobody had ever thought that he could get caught alive because of his absorption power, yet Shard was able to do so. Since Shard had planned the strategy she receives another promotion and becomes Bishop’s superior officer as he had turned any promtion offer down, wanting nothing else than do field duty.
(now)
Like already in the last issue, Bishop again states that part of him wishes that Shard never got that promotion since it set stage for getting her killed. Shard opposes that if it hadn’t happened then, she would have made a career in the X.S.E. at another point. Bishop agrees, she was always pushing her luck, always ambitious, wanting to lead the whole X.S.E.. Shard can’t see what’s wrong with a little ambition, but Bishop reminds her of setting him up against the prototype to prove that her ambition clouded Shard’s decisions.
(future flashback)
Being a high ranking commander Shard thought of new ways to deal with the many villainous mutants of her time and started to develop solid holoprojection with Mr. Lycadeon, a technician working for the Witness. Yet when she ran a field test to impress Hecate, Bishop defeated the prototype and pointed out that the hologram could not adapt to new situations. Mr. Lycadeon confirmed that, but further improvement of the holoprojection could only be accomplished by processing more of the mind of the person it is based upon, resulting in killing the subject. Judging the holo research to be a dead end Hecate stopped funding the project and out of anger Shard balmed Bishop for the failure. She even attacked him and the siblings fought till Hecate interrupted, usually she would have suspended officers for such behavior, but both were needed too much.
(now)
Shard still holds a grudge against Bishop as she believes that this experiment was crucial for her career. Her brother points out that they would have had to sacrifice people for the prototypes to work, which Shard justifies by saying that sacrifices sometimes have to be made and being in the X.S.E meant that. Bishop accuses Shard of having been willing to sacrifice people only for her own career, which Shard denies; she never risked anyone’s life where she wasn’t willing to risk her own. In Bishop’s opinion risking his own life only to get promotions is too much, Shard answers that in risking her life she had some help : Fitzroy.
(future flashback)
Early on, even though Shard knew that Fitzroy was a creep, she responded to his flirting much to the concern of her brother. She was not really serious about him, but she thought he was fun to be with for a while and one night he actually let his guard down. Shard was dreaming about leading the whole X.S.E. one day and thought it funny that then Fitzroy would have to respond to her commands, but he had no intentions of ever graduating and becoming an officer. Actually Trevor only was at the academy since his father forced him. Fitzroy’s dad was actually Anthony Shaw, the Black King of the Hellfire Club (making Fitzroy the grandson or great-grandson of Sebastian Shaw), yet since he was an illegitimate child, Shaw shipped him off to the X.S.E while training his other son William to become his heir. Even the name Fitzroy is a joke as it was used by kings and queens in earlier centuries to name their illegitimate offspring. Trevor had enough of being the unwanted son, but he announced that this was about to change that night. One day later it became publicly known that William Shaw had died and Trevor was called home to his father.
Years later Fitzroy had become a villain and regularly used his teleportation gates to rob banks or steal technology. Shard, Bishop, Malcom and Randall hunted and captured him, and a Public trial is held, but still he is not found guilty since his father bought the judge and jury.
Again some time has passed when Bishop re-captured Fitzroy and this time his father was not willing to help him anymore. Fearing prison, Trevor offered to give away information on the Exhumes in exchange for letting him go. Usually Bishop would never consider such a deal, but seeing a chance to make up with his sister (for the arguement over the failed prototype experiment) he agreed. Bishop gave the tip about the Exhumes‘ main base to Shard and let her and her team investigate alone so that all the credit would befall on her, yet the scenario was a trap. Fitzroy had been lying and the whole team was walking right into an Emplates nest. Completly outnumbered Shard and her team fought as hard as they could but in the end they were all turned into the mutant vampires too. Bishop and his friends arrived too late to prevent the transmutation.


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Conflagration
(future flashback)
Bishop, Malcolm and randall just arrive at the site of the battle, where Shard and her team have been turned into Emplates. X.S.E, protocols say that the only way to deal with Emplates is to kill them but Bishop couldn‘t do that to his sister. Remembering Lycadeon’s words (see last issue) Bishop grabs his sister and brings her to the Witness’s labs to be processed into a holomatrix, her body was emplate and could no longer be turned, but at least her mind could be saved this way. Since the Witness owned the needed technology, Bishop was forced to make a deal with him. The Witness demanded that Bishop would work in his operation for at least one year, afterwards he would be given Shard’s holographic uniprojector.
Bishop agreed, even though the process was untested and could have failed. In the Witness’s labs the porcess was performed, but halfway through the Emplate side realized what was happening and tried to unstrap herself from the equipment. Bishop held the body tight and also absorbed much of Shard’s energy blasts that were released during the process. Finally it was over, the body stopped moving and the brain waves, personality and memories of Shard had been downloaded into the wrist holoprojector. The next day Bishop wanted to resign from active duty in the X.S.E but Hecate knew already about the deal and said that she’ would suspend him for a year and expected him to be back.
(now)
Shard is shocked to hear about these events. She never knew how much Bishop sacrificed to save her brain and personality. She asks what kind of work Bishop had to do for the Witness, but he replies that he is not yet ready to talk about the timeperiod yet. However he met someone both of them had known.
(future flashbacks)
On his first day, Bishop was introduced to Shackle, the Witness’s head of security, who was nobody else than their old classmate Shirley. She had abandoned the X.S.E. for the high salary that she got paid by the Witness’s foundation. Once Bishop had an intresting talk with the Witness as he revealed to be “LeBeau and more than LeBeau”, and that he is in a jail and that he is a jail.
After the year was finally over Bishop took the wrist projector with Shard’s holomatrix, destroyed the mastercopy still in the Witness’s databanks and and rejoined the X.S.E. Hecate noted how much Bishop changed during that year, he seemed more distant and colder, more driven, more like Shard.
(now)
Bishop finishes his tale with revealing that his first assignment was to bring in the escaped Fitzroy (Uncanny X-Men 287), which ultimatly led to him, Randall and Malcolm following through the timeportal into the present. Shard is still amazed how much Bishop had to endure for having her turned into a holomatrix, she offers to stay with him among the X-Men if that really is his wish. Bishop answers that he would like her to stay, but it would not be right for all the reasons she had mentioned during their discussion. Shard needs to build her own life, and for now that means X-Factor. The siblings hug and then Shard departs by fading out. Storm comes out to the balcony where Bishop still stands. She heard voices and asks if he is ok, which Bishop confirms. By looking at the stars he realizes that though the people will come and go and names may change the dream will always be there and as the X-Men inspired the X.S.E, so may the X.S.E. inspire future generations.


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
untitled
Manhattan lies in ruins. A young brunette in a green prison suit with the letter “M” and a power suppressor collar walks the streets, musing about the state of the world, how humankind rather destroyed their world than share it with mutants, about purges, wars and camps.
She reaches the Bronx zoo. She looks through the vet office for medication and hopes the world can change again. That moment, she is surprised by a tiger, which attacks her. However, the tiger is pulled back and tossed against the wall by Wolverine.
Loudly, he wonders, given how scarce food is, why no one ever cooked the tiger. The girl points out that they are endangered. What isn’t these days? he snorts. Besides, anything’s good with barbecue sauce. What’s barbecue sauce? she asks. He sighs and asks what she got. She explains she figured nobody’d look for medicine in the vet labs. He praises her smarts and calls her Chrissie Pryde. “Christina,” she corrects him. “Chrissie” he insists. If he had to change her diapers, he gets to embarrass her in front of the wildlife. She asks if he is with him. Cameron, his son, got held up, he snaps. Angrily, he tears off an anti-mutant poster.
Chrissie muses that her dad says there are so few of them left, the humans will soon have to find someone else to blame their trouble on. That’s real Russian of him, Logan remarks. Does she believe old Colossus? She can’t think any world is so lost that they can’t turn it around. That’s her mom talking, he opines. She ever try not following her orders? Think for herself? She hugs him and tells him he’s a jerk. But pretty, he points out.
The military sent her and her mom on fetch quests today, Chrissie explains. She took this side trip and saw the anti-mutant posters. He’s always been honest with her. Does he think the humans will vote for reform? Get rid of the Mutant Control Act and stop rounding them up?
They’re wiping mutants, he replies. They killed so many in the first wave. Stuck the rest in internment camps. Studied them, sterilized them. There haven’t been any mutant kids born since her. Does she know what it takes to bring a species back from extinction?
They say good-bye and he teases her again with her name. Chrissie sneaks back but is caught by a Sentinel. She runs. Before it can blast her, an angry Kate Pryde gets in its way, identifies herself and announces they are on official business for the United Doomstates. They have explicit permission to be outside the zone to gather information of any mutants still living off the grid.
The Sentinel confirms that Kate was instrumental in the capture of mutants 234 and 339 ten years prior. They will be accompanied back to base.
Chrissie whispers that she found the stuff they were looking for. As they enter the camp and walk past the graves, Chrissie asks if there has been news of Storm. Kate replies there are no new graves and reminds her the Reform Vote is coming.
In their barrack, she greets Colossus, Magneto and Rachel. While Kate and Piotr kiss, Chrissie tells the others she found the last chemicals they need to destroy the suppressing collars. She reminds the wheelchair-bound Magneto that, once they have their powers back, he’ll have to make good on the metal pony he’s been promising her since she was eight. The one he was actually going to make gallop. She drives a hard bargain, he sighs fondly.
Meanwhile aboard Airforce One:President Robert Kelly expects a nightmare scenario if the Reform Vote comes through. Don’t those bleeding hearts realize they are trying to protect them? Mutants must be kept in internment camps –
Controlled communities, a senator corrects him. He can mince words with the voters, Kelly snaps, but he is not going to mince words with God. Doom is their overlord and he will not reward his generosity with anarchist freaks rioting in the streets! They need drastic actions to prevent the public from softening on mutant control. Tomorrow they will land in New York City and address these radicals. He orders Donovan to start writing the speech. Martinez and Foster are to make sure the public remember why they hate mutants. And get it on camera!
South Bronx mutant internment center:Kate and Rachel create the chemical they need. Kate recalls Professor X gave her a chemical set like this when she was 14. There are so many things Chrissie will never experience, she laments. Music that was outlawed, food from before the famine… Rachel reminds her, Chrissie will have the freedom to create a new world. She’s the youngest mutant in creation. The last ever born before the sterilization began.
At night, they start their escape. Electronics and guards are taken out. They put on their uniforms (in Chrissie’s case, one of Kate’s old uniforms) and use the acid to destroy the collars. With their powers back, they face the Sentinels. They enjoy blowing off some steam after fifteen years.
Suddenly, Chrissie is hit by a Sentinel’s eyeblast. Kate runs to her side to see Chrissie changing into fluid metal as her mutant power finally manifests. She shapes her arm into a spear and slices off the Sentinel’s head. Happily, she hugs her parents. Magneto warns her that was only an old model. To survive, they need numbers. There is much work yet to be done. And they continue their escape.
Later, New Kent Military Base:Foster reminds Martinez that the president wants it all on camera. No one wants everything on camera, Martinez retorts, just what makes good TV. They enter a room with several covered bodies. They should start with mutant-on- mutant violence, Foster suggests. Make sure nothing gets out of hand, Martinez adds and puts a syringe into a blue arm under a cover.
With a start, Mystique wakes up and the Blob soon after her. Foster explains where they are and that they’ve been in chemically induced comas for the last fifteen years. They remind them one of their own kind betrayed them. Foster claims they are activists for mutant reform. They need their help to take down Robert Kelly’s mutant enforcers. Who? the crying Blob asks. Kitty Pryde, he is told.
In the meantime, the X-Men are trying to look for Wolverine and Cameron. Chrissie announces she thought they were going to break open the internment camps and show the world what is really being done to mutants.
Rachel and Magneto explain that, while less useful mutants were disposed of, they were forced to serve the United Doomstates. They have forced mutants to build them weapons. Rachel discovered a virus that is targeting the newest Sentinel model. Only one is confirmed affected but the virus will force the Sentinel to kill President Robert Kelly. If Chrissie and Cameron, the youngest of their kind, could save Kelly, he might persuade Doom and humanity to save the remaining mutants from extinction.
Kate protests that they can’t force Chrissie to accept such a burden. Rachel insists she is a beacon of hope. The sight of the youngest of them risking her life for the man who condemned them all to death… there is power in that image.
Chrissie announces they kept her safe her whole life. They taught her people can change. If they don’t save the world, who will?
Rachel receives a telepathic signal. Storm is alive. She tells Chrissie not to lose any time. President Kelly will be speaking at the Baxter Building. They will find her. She flies off. Kate points out that they have to find Wolverine first. This is the rendezvous point. He should be here already.
Part of a building damaged by the Sentinels collapses. Colossus sees there are people inside. He and a reluctant Magneto save them.
Kate, in the meantime, sees Mystique and Blob moving towards them. They accuse her of giving them up to save her own skin. Martinez and Foster film the events intending to edit out the saving of humans later.
Chrissie happily cries out, Wolverine is there (as is Cameron, a tall muscular, black-haired boy a little older than her).
Logan attacks Mystique while Kate helps with the evacuation. Blob attacks Chrissie who is defending two humans and hits her metallic form. He grabs the two human and shouts look what they did to him, what they made him do! They scream in terror. Cameron phases into Blob with a sharp metal object, phases through him and uses it to tear him apart.
He goes to help up Chrissie, who is shocked he killed one of the few mutants left. He wasn’t going to let him kill her or the humans just because the Blob is a dying breed, he snaps. Chrissie is still shocked.
The building collapses and Magneto protects everyone under a metal shield.
They hear a screeching noise. Foster and Martinez realize they need to evacuate, and decide to leave the civilians behind. The sound is the new Sentinels closing in.


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
untitled
Chrissie’s memories:The first thing she remembers is her mother. She was reading to her from a book. They were already in the camp.
Cameron’s memories:The first thing he remembers is his father Wolverine. They were outside in the cold. He was telling him a story of war.
Chrissie’s memories:Her dad was with them, her aunts (Storm and Rachel) and her uncle (Magneto), though some of them are gone now.
Cameron’s memories:He asked about his mother but his dad said she couldn’t be with them and that he couldn’t ask about her anymore.
Chrissie’s memories:They taught her science and history and philosophy and art.
Cameron’s memories:He taught him hunting and fighting and killing, and always survival.
For Chrissie home was the base. For Cameron, home was the street. She was safe but never free. He was free but never safe.
She was on a fetch mission for the military base and he was scouting for food to trade in Centrum when they first met. Logan was angry and told Cameron to forget her.
Is he real? Chrissie asked. He likes Tupac better than Biggie, if that’s what she means, he replied nervously. Chrissie didn’t get the reference. She wondered about him being only one to two years older. She’d never met another young mutant. And he hadn’t met a wide range of fifteen year olds with crossbows. Clearly, they should both get out more.
This wasn’t about love but, when they met, they thought for the first time maybe things could change.
Present:The X-Men and Mystique flee from a Sentinel that is currently focusing on Magneto and Mystique. Logan orders them all into the sewers. And they follow. The tunnels are flooded but Centrum’s dead ahead, he announces. They’ll deal with the rest later.
Chrissie addresses Cameron about what he did to the Blob, a fellow mutant. He explains his mutation is merging. He can merge into anything and come out at any point, so long as it’s still part of the makeup of the original object. Enter a root and come out a branch. Enter a roof and come out the basement. Enter a person, Chrissie continues, and cut your way out of his stomach.
Kate joins them and explains his power doesn’t frighten Chrissie but what he chose to do with it. Mystique tells Kate not to moralize. She sold them to the humans! Fifteen years they lived in that base, fed and protected while she and Blob were their experiments! None of which means he gets to play Hannibal Lecter in a leotard, Logan snaps. And none of the X-Men had jack to do with them getting nabbed.
Chrissie gets between them. There are so few of them, this violence of mutant against mutant must end! Cameron tried to save the civilians and them. But this violence must stop! They must work together. They must not do any more harm.
The others look at each other silently. They hear a grumbling noise above and figure the Sentinels know they are below.
Upstairs, Rachel sees one Sentinel flying by. She telekinetically takes out the human mutant hunters, wondering in a world without electricity what is powering the Sentinels.
She gets her answer when she enters the Sentinels’ HQ and finds that Storm is used to create the energy. Rachel takes out the human guards and frees Ororo, who helps her destroy the equipment, after which they fly off.
The sewers:In a boat, the fugitives are traveling to Centrum. Chrissie and Cameron are in the last row. Cameron wants to talk to her about what she said. She explains her mom said the young people would have to step up. It’s going to be their world to inherit and shape. Her mother’s generation turned the world into this, and it’s going to be up to their generation to turn it into something better.
He asks if she knows what body counts their parents attached to their names. His father alone… And he sees her going back and forth with Magneto like it’s nothing. He’s a super-villain! She’s only ever known him as her uncle who taught her science and languages, Chrissie explains.
Cameron tells her that her mom is wrong about this. They are the last mutants ever born. There isn’t going to be a new generation for them. They are all they’ve got. This is all they’ve got.
They’ve arrived at Centrum and are greeted by Angel. He welcomes Kate and Peter, and tells them the Sentinels can’t find Centrum yet. Kate introduces the kids and stumbles shortly when she introduces Cameron as Wolverine’s son. Angel replies Cameron is an old friend. There are few better hunters and he is always welcome.
Chrissie is curious about a Sentinel head. Angel explains it’s an old model. They used its genetic scanners to line the entrance tunnels. Only mutants and abnormals can come down here. He’s been sending Rachel data about what they’ve learned about their updates, hoping to put it all to good use. Kate sends the kids away as they need to make plans.
Colossus walks a bit behind them. What was that about? Cameron asks. And he was going to make a “your mom is so classless she’s a Marxist Utopia” joke he’d been saving for a month. Chrissie informs him that’s the worst pun she’s ever heard. Still she wonders why she laughs. Stress, or maybe he is funny? he suggests. Chrissie admits how dizzy she feels. She just took her collar off and came into her powers, and all the things they talked about and now they are playing for keeps. She’s scared. They all see that potential in her. She’s afraid.
Cameron trades for some jerky and shares it with her. He reminds her if they want to survive, they need a lot more than the moral high ground and a bad joke.
A joke. This all began as a joke, Colossus interjects. It always begins as a joke. One sees a parent of whom they do not approve. And their brats won’t shut up and the parents are so exhausted they let their children scream and run wild. And you say to your friends, you should have a test to breed. You should have to get licenses to have kids.
It starts as a joke. Then perhaps there is a tragedy. A postpartum mother who needed help but her insurance didn’t cover the therapy. A father who failed because he believed men are pathetic if they are the caregivers. The first tests are drafted. And you think: “Good. Those children will be safe now.”
But now anyone with mental illness, with a criminal record, is barred from becoming a parent, and you think that’s sensible. Because you’ve never known anyone like that, so who’s to tell they are not like in the stories. Sick dangerous, criminal.
Suddenly, it is anyone with diabetes or cancer because they could die and leave their children as orphans. It is deaf couples, disabled couples, interracial couples, gay couples, because don’t they know how hard they are making it for their children?
Then it is whoever they want, and one day it is you. Some gene, some history, some past behavior and suddenly you too are sick, dangerous criminal. Because the truth is human hate can adapt to anything. You think you are safe. It if someone hates you he can come up with a reason after the fact. Only then do you realize what you put into power, what you stripped away.
There is terrible power in a joke, in a story, in taking the truth and making it ugly. Do they understand?
Chrissie hugs him and tells him she does. He thought he was one for monologues, Magneto jokes. But, if they need living proof, Cameron is famous. He points to a TV screen showing Cameron killing the Blob. The news calls it a mutant terrorist attack on unarmed civilians. The report continues about mutant on mutant violence.
Magneto tells them this is their second rule of warfare: with good editing you’re the villain of any story. What was the first rule? Chrissie asks. Pick a good face for your rebellion, Magneto smiles. Are they still bent on saving Kelly after what he’s done? Cameron asks.
Mystique is working with the old Sentinel. She remembers them from before her imprisonment. The AI was more sophisticated than the current generation. Almost human. Where… are … my… the Sentinel groans. I … cannot… see.
Chrissie is shocked that it speaks. Mystique explains it was part of an experimental sequence of Sentinels, given the ability to feel far and pain. Part of a plan for Doom’s army, whether a thinking soldier was better than a machine.
Chrissie calls it torture. Yes, it’s metal, but so are she and her father. At the risk of sounding like a bitter chain-smoking old man or his father, Cameron points out this is the humanity she’s trying to save. They make machines that have more rights than their population.
Wolverine and Kate join them. Kate wants to see the data Angel and his allies found in this model. Mystique hands her the laptop. Kate remarks the virus Rachel discovered, the one set to attack Kelly; it’s very recent. Look at the code that’s used, the security it’s meant to breach. You would not have needed that a few months ago. The Sentinel was recently implanted with commands to destroy three people with a specific DNA sequence… why?
Colossus points at a program. He has seen it at the base when the soldiers didn’t know he was watching. Does she think…She thinks Kelly set them up, Kate agrees grimly. He is fabricating an attack on himself so he can blame the mutants.
All of them gather around the computer except for Cameron, who is next to the Sentinel’s head that moans to let him die. Let them come and kill them all! Cameron tries to point that out but the others don’t listen. Wolverine! he finally shouts and they listen to the Sentinel repeating, let them come and kill them all. Moments later, two of the latest Doom Sentinels tear through the ceiling. Kate grabs Cameron and Chrissie and tells Colossus to hold off the Sentinels. Magneto protects the others a forcefield and orders Mystique to not let them get the downed Sentinel. Colossus and Wolverine attack.
Kate leads the kids downward. Where is she taking them? Cameron demands. The last failsafe for Centrum, she replies. Her loan to Angel years ago. She phases them through a door into a cave and tells the huge dragon Lockheed to wake up.


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
untitled
Kate Pryde has led Chrissie and Cameron to the caves beneath Centrum, in which a huge Lockheed is slumbering. She tells the kids he won’t hurt them. There is a rumbling noise above them. Kitty explains the situation to Lockheed. The Sentinels have found Centrum… the last mutant refuge is under attack.
She tells the kids when they were captured that she sent Lockheed away with Angel. President Kelly’s Sentinels briefly used radiation-based technology. It mutated him. Made him huge, half-blind. He sees better in the dark now and defends Centrum from raids by Moloids and Mole Men. Centrum’s little security system.
Petting him, Kate laments she thought she was giving him his freedom. She never dreamed it would come to this. One more battle, she asks of him, while they get the people to safety. Ready? Fly!
Lockheed take to the sky and attacks the Doom Sentinels. One Sentinel takes him in a death grip, only to be electrocuted by Storm, who announces they won’t be the Sentinels’ prisoners anymore. Leading the refugees to the surface, the other X-Men are happy to see her. Rachel joins them too and helps with the refugees.
Christina worries about Lockheed. Kate tells her she and Cameron are more important than the rest. They must get to safety.
Storm and Lockheed decapitate a Doom Sentinel but still the head manages to shoot deathrays at Lockheed and the dragon falls, causing a shockwave. Cameron is about to be buried by a falling wall. “Not my son!” Kate shouts, grabs him and phases the two of them.
The two look at each other in silence, as the meaning of her words sinks in. Colossus tries to explain. They tried to give him a life beyond the fences…
The ceiling caving in heralds the arrival of more Sentinels. Kate tries to reach out to Cameron and is rebuffed. Colossus tells Kate and the kids to go - they will search for Lockheed and find them again. Take the children to the last sanctuary! Chrissie asks Cameron if he is okay. No, he replies.
Later at the former amusement park on Coney Island:Kate tries to address Chrissie and is rebuffed. She asks what this place is. Doom is God and his church is untouchable, Kate explains. Not even President Kelly’s minions could violate this final sanctuary: The Doom Cathedral. Kate continues, the priest who keeps the Doom Cathedral is frightening at first glance, but he’s harmless, an ally, Father Kurt Wagner… Nightcrawler.
Kurt teleports outside to join them. He greets Kate as little sister and urges them inside, calling her “Kitty” despite her protests. Kate begins to introduce the kids. Chrissie interrupts they are her kids, both of them. Kurt asks about Colossus. Kate replies he will join them soon.
Kurt welcomes them in the house of God Doom. His penance does not cause Doom to intervene on their behalf, it seems. No matter how much he repents, mutantkind still suffers. As he thinks Kitty and her family do. He tells them to rest, perhaps in here answers can be found. He leaves them.
Kate again talks to the kids. What they and Logan did, they only had the best intentions. How dare—Chrissie begins. Exactly, Kate cuts her off. How dare she become this? How dare she forget what it’s like to be so young and saddled with something so impossibly brutally big. She is sorry. For both of them. Cameron was just an infant when they were captured and Logan escaped with him, and Chrissie was born in the camps, in secret. Kelly had already begun his mission to end mutant births forever.
Chrissie tells her she can’t listen to this. How can she trust anything she says? She stalks off. Cameron tells Kate to let her go. She’s just unnerved. Kate tells him she can understand if he doesn’t forgive her. But he does forgive her, Cameron replies. Because she doesn’t ask him to. He gets it. It’s too big a secret for a little kid. Chrissie might have said something in front of a guard. Or they might have tortured her. If they had thought there were kids among the mutants still at large, it would have been a massacre. He gets why they didn’t tell Chrissie but he doesn’t understand why Wolverine wouldn’t tell him. It’s been hard. Being his kid, knowing somehow he wasn’t. Wolverine never spoke about Cameron’s mom. He couldn’t figure it out. He talked about Jean, about Storm, about all the women heroines he’d known, but he never talked about her or Colossus. They were the black holes in his stories and now he is realizing why: They put all the values of their mutant think tank into Chrissie and all their fears into him. An heir and a spare. The hope of mutantkind and the other one if everything goes mushroom cloud-shaped.
Kate insists that’s not true. Can he imagine how agonizing it was knowing he was outside the fence, knowing she couldn’t protect him? To be near him today and not even have a moment to tell him the truth? To see him for the first time in years in that battle with Mystique? To know her absence was as much to blame as—
He tells her to stop. Chrissie isn’t the only one who needs some alone time.
He joins Chrissie. So, siblings, huh? she remarks bitterly. Siblings, he agrees. Very Star Wars. She doesn’t get that reference. Well, at least there hasn’t been any unresolved sexual tension, right? he jokes. She makes disgusted noises but can’t help smiling, then admits this all got so messy and confusing. He looks outside and tells her growing up is messy and confusing. You think your life is going to be a heroic rebellion adventure, but instead it’s two kids growing up in the post-industrial military complex.
Chrissie complains everyone is trying to teach her lessons about war and media and death and duty and it all gets jumbled up. Every adult thinks they know what to tell you to keep you from the same hell they went through but they can’t! And you’re just confused and well-meaning and scared, and you know adults are doing brutal things and a lot of them are wrong, but all in life is what they taught you.
Cameron understands. You try to make sense of all these huge beliefs and responsibilities, she continues. You want to be a force for good. But you’re fourteen. And at fourteen you’re old enough to read the Communist Manifesto and Brave New World but young enough to watch cartoons, cry over Harry Potter and eat cereal for every meal. Everything is just love and terror in absolutes. You’re in a rush to do the right thing, be the right person… and everything is just so hard. He knows, Cameron assures her and hugs her, calling her little sister.
A moment later, Nightcrawler teleports himself and Kate in. Kate announces they have something important to show them. The community propaganda, Kate continues, the flyers, the campaigns that encourage you to wear your identification letter with pride— it is time for them to see for themselves what “separate” and “second class” really mean. They take Nightcrawler’s hands.
He teleports them to part of the church roof, which has a view of mutant internment camp 1432. Kate explains mutants, abnormals, political prisoners, undesirables. They have to unite. With whispers of mutant reform in the wind, they can put a stop to this. They can pull their domain back from the brink if they work together.
Kurt continues that, for years he tried to save the mutants in there… the inner walls are impenetrable to all but military technology. Even he cannot teleport within. If the prisoners can make it to the doors of the cathedral, the laws of sanctuary can protect them… but at this moment… he cannot.
Chrissie insists they can’t leave them there. Did she hear what Nightcrawler said? Cameron asks. Look at their artillery. She’s just manifested. Kate hasn’t used her power in years. They’ve got security against Nightcrawler, and he…
And he? Chrissie repeats. He won’t do it, he finally announces. Even if they rescued those people, what would they do? Ask starving broken people to take up weapons and fight against Doom’s appointed Baron, President Kelly? They would get them butchered. If they threw open the gates, he doubts even a handful would follow them. They’ve been abused too much. She can’t ask that of them. She doesn’t think she knows what they want either, Chrissie replies. What were they just saying? How messed up is this?
He scoffs. He thought they agreed to back off, regroup and not jump in with the fuzzy memory of some philosophy she’s read like half on Wikipedia. Chrissie doesn’t get the reference. She doesn’t get a lot of things, he points out. She asks him for help. He sighs and promises to help, when the time comes. Good, she replies, powers up and jumps down toward the camp. No time like the present!
The guards open fire at her. Cameron phases downward to join her. Kurt teleports himself and Kate down, and together they attack the guards. The guards stun Nightcrawler and mock if he never wondered how they got the tech against him. Kurt understands and shouts at Kate it’s a trap.
Chrissie has cut holes in the fence, walks inside and announces they are here to save them. Oh little one, Destiny, flanked by Pyro, Avalanche and more armed guards states. Who told her they needed saving?


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
untitled
Martinez and Foster, President Kelly’s aides, make their way through the ruins of former mutant refuge Centrum, wanting more footage on mutant-on-human violence before President Kelly’s address in just a few hours. The mutants are gone, but they figure they can paint the battle as the product of an underground mutant conspiracy. They hear a rumbling noise and flee.
Moments later Magneto, Storm, Rachel, Angel and Colossus rise up, followed by Mystique, who helps up Wolverine. Fifteen years they kept her in a lab and this is what they let the future come to? Mystique complains. Wasn’t his job to play the maid? he retorts.
The X-Men happily greet the freed Storm. Rachel announces where the refugee groups have taken shelter. Colossus adds that Kate has taken Chrissie and Cameron to Sanctuary. Rachel is angry about them arranging this without informing the rest of them but Magneto is grateful. The children are too precious to risk. They have much work to do. Rachel agrees. If they were to lose even one of them… Magneto points out that they raised that girl. Taught her Nietzsche with her alphabet and Sun Tzu with stuffed animals. They must protect her. Time for their endgame? Angel asks. So to speak, Magneto replies. Their last gift for Chrissie, the last hope of their kind.
Chrissie and Cameron have breached the mutant internment camp but find the former Brotherhood members Pyro, Destiny and Avalanche attacking them.
The other prisoners marvel at how young Christina is. She turns human and asks them not to be afraid. They can escape their captors together, win and make a better world. Are they prepared? The people look scared. Then let’s fight their way to freedom, she shouts and the people follow.
Chrissie is distracted and Destiny kicks her in the face. Chrissie wants to say something about her Uncle Erik. Destiny orders her not to speak his name. That coward sold them out years ago to protect his plans but, as she can see, they have made deals of their own.
Chrissie demands why they are helping their captors. They are killing mutants! Her parents were captured, Destiny points out. They served. It was that or die, Chrissie rejoins. Exactly! Destiny agrees and tosses her to the ground. Serve or die!
Avalanche is about to bury Chrissie, unaware of the tower toppling behind him. Kate phases through him and protects Chrissie while Avalanche is buried.
Pyro tries to burn Cameron to find he is phasing. Turns out he got more than his mother’s eyes, Cameron jokes and goes for Pyro’s throat and phases him into the rubble. Now, what were they protecting? Pyro tells him not to. They had to give the humans something. They gave them different collars, let them keep their powers. They would have killed them if they hadn’t—
Cameron walks into the building and finds the bodies of tortured dead mutants. They gave them their own people, he realizes. He hears a cry from outside.
Destiny has gotten the army as reinforcements. They threaten to shoot the mutant prisoners. Chrissie hears Magneto call her name via comm. As there is a rumbling noise, he informs her that he brought the gift he promised. He’s afraid it is not a pony. But he thinks it will do.
He is holding together and controlling a Sentinel. Moments later, the robot and the other X-Men attack the soldiers who wisely flee.
Nightcrawler teleports in to usher the mutant prisoners to the Cathedral, where they will have sanctuary.
Magneto and the Sentinel land. Wolverine explains Storm powered it, Rachel and Angel reworked its wiring; Magneto did the rest. Worth the wait? Magneto asks Chrissie. Worth the wait, she agrees.
Logan and Cameron greet each other tensely. When Logan wants to explain, Cameron interjects that Kate already beat him to that plot point. He’s Kate and Piotr’s son, not his. There’s work to do on the mech. Logan leaves.
Storm reminds them all that President Kelly will be arriving at any moment to rouse the humans against their kind. Soon he will activate the virus in one of his Sentinels to stage the attack against himself— and blame mutants. When it is safe, they will call for Chrissie to come to Kelly’s aid. Wolverine will be her guide. Kate asks Chrissie if she is ready. To save their people? Yes, she agrees.
Storm takes off. Wolverine asks Chrissie what she thinks of war. She is shaken by the deaths. Logan reminds her she has the chance to save them all.
Cameron interrupts them, holding a tablet computer. He tells Chrissie to get away from them. This is the Sentinel from Centrum. He reminds Kate when she studied the Sentinel she found three sequences programmed into it – targets. The Sentinel was an old model. Kelly didn’t know they had the damn thing. He’s staging the attack against himself. But they intercepted it. They are pulling the strings. Kelly thought he was firing blanks but they loaded it with ammo. Angel gave Rachel the data on the Sentinel for her to design her fake “virus.” From the base where they were imprisoned. One was Kelly’s DNA for the attack.
Kate asks about the other two DNA sequences. They share genes, he replies. One of them is off the grid… no file… but the other… they already know. He shows Chrissie the tablet, which confirms her as the target, meaning logically the other one is Cameron.
They made them targets of a real attack. They are not meant to save President Kelly. They are meant to die for him.
Magneto glares. “You bastard!” Kate hisses and attacks Magneto, who magnetically grabs Destiny’s suppressor collar and puts it around Kate’s throat. Wolverine is next to attack, but Magneto tosses him away. He isn’t sure how many apocalypses they must endure before he remembers he has a metal skeleton, Magneto sighs. At least a few more, it would seem.
Surrounded by his Sentinel, he turns to Chrissie and assures her he doesn’t want to hurt her, so stay out of his way!
Kate shouts at Chrissie to run. He doesn’t want to hurt her but he’d send a Sentinel to kill her, Chrissie snaps. She was never meant to be burdened with that knowledge, he replies. She was raised innocent. She was never supposed to know the end was coming.
Did the others… Chrissie begins. Rachel, yes, Magneto admits, the others did not understand the aid they were providing. He asks her not to hate Rachel. They love her. It had to be Chrissie because she was the light of their people. But to be a martyr to the cause she has to die.
He magnetically freezes her and his Sentinel grabs for Chrissie, then flies away with her. Cameron merges with the Sentinel, phases through it and phases his fingers through Magneto’s brain, killing him. The Sentinel breaks apart and Chrissie falls. Uncle Erik! she cries, realizing he is dead.
He didn’t feel it coming, Cameron assures her. He slipped his hand through the back of his skull. Shut up! she shouts. He reminds her that man wanted to kill them. Him, Wolverine, their parents, they’ve done nothing but use them. Pawns or sacrifices for their endgame— Shut up! she repeats, armors up and hits him in the face.
They are things to them, Cameron continues on the ground. If he could hurt her, kill her… if that think tank of mutants was the best that was left of their kind… mutants don’t deserve to exist anymore. He assures his sister that this isn’t some revenge quest. He isn’t a final-level villains. Listen: Think about the mutants in the camp, how she rallied them to fight. She is exactly what she was born to be. An inspiration. Hope for the future.
But he’s lived in the hell of this world. The cruelty, the starvation, the purges. The cesspit of what it’s become. What he saw in the camps… mutants don’t deserve a future!
What is he saying? Chrissie asks. Hundreds of thousands years of human progress in a human world, he continues – and then mutants came onto the scene. And within three generations they went form civilization and golden ages to this. They thought this dystopia was an adventure. But it’s natural selection. The Earth purging itself of what upset the balance. Mutants, superhumans, they don’t belong here. Only when they are gone can the world return to what it was meant to be. Course correct. Heal.
In her metal form, Chrissie tries to hit him. He phases through the rubble and comes out behind her. He urges her not to do this. He loves her. How can she want to fight after all the horror they have seen? If she plays her part, she won’t save them, she’ll only inspire more suffering. Better, mutants should die.
Trying to get him with her claws, she mocks his monologue. He replies he is going to kill Robert Kelly. And then the humans will wipe out the mutants once and for all. If she wants to save the world, then this is the cost of peace.
Chrissie replies every person she loves has told her what to be, what to do, how to act, what to become. Time to grow up! She goes for his stomach. If he is going to try to destroy their own people, he is going to have to go through her!


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
untitled
Cameron Pryde has decided that his people, mutants, must die. His sister Christina bars his way. He muses that she’s been called the hope of their people. She puts up a good fight. Touching his bleeding nose, he admits she really hurt him. He’ll live, Chrissie snaps. Not if he gets to President Kelly before she does, he replies. A nice public assassination… Give the humans a good reason to wipe their kind off the map.
Mutants deserve extinction, Cameron insists. He laughs when he sees she is still wearing the tiger tooth pendant he gave her. He tells her to think of the tigers. Beautiful and deadly and rare and on the verge of annihilation. Then the first bombs fell and the zoos were abandoned, and now they breed like alley cats. They’ve overrun the cities. There are probably more of them than of mutants. They kill people just as mutants do. Just as he has… for her. Dukes, Magneto, Pyro – all for her. Is this what she meant by saving the species? Is this what she wants them to come back from the brink of annihilation from… as monsters? Better their kind should die! She’s the only person he doesn’t want to hurt. He offers his hand.
So what? Chrissie shouts and traps him with her fluid metal body. He kills Kelly, he’ll prove the people are right about mutants and humans will start a genocide on their people!
He phases and replies one species can live and the other die or both can go up in flames. They can’t coexist any longer. Out of all the lessons their parents taught them, that is the most obvious. See her at the plaza! He phases into the rubble and disappears.
Grimly, she states, he is wrong. And that’s the lesson she is finally going to teach him.
The skies above the National Plaza:Storm is controlling the weather and bringing in Air Force One. She joins the others and asks if Chrissie is ready for her moment to shine. Rachel uses her telekinesis to bring the plane slowly down. Colossus feels there is something wrong. He wonders where Magneto and Kate are. Not to mention the big malfunctioning Sentinel. He asks Rachel if she is sure about the danger that rogue Sentinel poses.
Rachel repeats: the Sentinel will make an attempt on Kelly’s life. Chrissie will save the president. The world will watch and everything will become better.
Angel turns to the imprisoned and tied up Foster and Martinez. He hopes they’ll enjoy the newsreel they are going to help them make today. “A mutant girl saves the leader who wants her dead.” He’d watch that. And he thinks the rest of New York would too.
That moment, Cameron emerges and flies toward the plane. As soldiers give chase, Colossus demands where Magneto is. He was supposed to hold them off. Cameron retorts that he, Magneto and Chrissie came down on different sides of an ideological debate. They were looking to straighten the whole thing out, but he came up with a better solution. He tears open the plane and grabs the president by the throat. Can he spare a moment to talk about mutant reform?
He notices a shadow falling on them. Guess what, big brother? Mom’s home and she’s pissed! Chrissie announces. She, Kate and Logan sit on the back of the giant Lockheed. So how’s this for his plan going up in flames? Cameron is forced to drop Kelly as Lockheed swoops down.
Kate hits Rachel, accusing her of trying to help Magneto murder her child. Rachel admits she had this coming but they had to do something. Of course, Kate mocks. They need a villain for this story. She’s more than happy to audition for the role. To save the mutants, they needed a martyr, Rachel replies as she powers up. Kate phases through her attack and hits her again, threatening that Rachel may get her wish. She reaches for her heart. No more tricks. No more lies. Or she will squeeze. Kate belts Rachel, while the other X-Men take care of the Doom Sentinels.
Chrissie kneels down next to Kelly and announces she’s been waiting her whole life to say this. Hello, President Kelly. Her name is Chrissie Pryde. She is the last mutant ever born. And she’s here to rescue him.
Lockheed flies to them. While Chrissie shields Kelly, she tells him to climb on Lockheed’s back and please consider mutant reform and hold tight.
Lockheed takes off. Cameron angrily shouts he’ll find him. If he has to burn the city to the ground he’ll…
Chrissie burns his leg with her heated arm blade. She figures burnt cells won’t phase. Is this what he wanted? To play the Magneto and Xavier to their generation? Don’t make her do this. He promises to never stop. Mutants and humans… They will never stop killing, they’ll all die, because of the two of them. There aren’t any innocent bystanders here.
Realizing she can’t deter him from his course, she stabs him through the chest.
Kate screams and the others look on in shock. Kate hugs Chrissie as she cries that the danger is gone. The others are saved. Isn’t that what she wanted?
Colossus and Wolverine drag Kate and Chrissie away. Two soldiers get ready to fire at them but are ordered to stand down by Kelly.
They retreat to the Cathedral, believing the humans won’t touch it. Angel flies off to gather the rest of the refugees. Rachel tries to apologize to Kate who doesn’t care. When they’ve reached the cathedral, Colossus tells her Angel is inside, that means so are the refugees. Every mutant left. Less than a hundred.
Nightcrawler greets them and asks where Cameron is. Their facial expressions tell him everything. Chrissie cries in Kate’s arms that he never would have stopped until they were all dead. Kate tries to calm her.
He was his son too, Logan informs the grieving family. Yes, he was, Piotr agrees. They hear the sounds of sirens and helicopters. X-Men and refugees get ready for one last stand.
Kate hears a growl from within the cathedral and follows it. She wonders what will become of them. Do they fight? Do they die? Do they pass from the world and is the world brighter or darker for their passing? What is coming for them? What are the sirens she hears? Ambulance or Sentinels? She stares at the tiger in front of her. Is there truly a difference any longer?


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Now, Not Tomorrow, part two: Fall Out
‘N-’ Greg Willis a.k.a. Gravity calls out, before the young villain called Warhead releases his explosive power. ‘NO!’ Gravity screams, but the radiation mushroom cloud billows skyward. ‘No…’ Gravity utters, fallen to the ground. ‘No!’ he calls out, sitting up in bed, waking from his nightmare. The former Girl Without a World, Rikki “Nomad” Bares lies in bed, solemn, a tattered poster of Captain America taped to the wall. Anya Corazon a.k.a. Arana stands at the bathroom sink, steam rising from the shower, she looks at herself in the mirror. Angelica “Firestar” Jones sits on her bed, holding her long wig in her hands.
Benito Serrao, known as Toro, sits on the grass in a park, watching the sunrise. He walks over to a police barricade, where emergency workers are going about their business around a glow of radiation. A glow of radiation that surrounds Ground Zero of the World Trade Center, littered with cars, broken construction works and rubble. The radiation appears in the form of a bubble, it has cut through several buildings. On a hover platform Reed Richards a.k.a. Mr Fantastic stands at some monitors, with Gravity nearby. ‘I tried to stop it, Sir. But I - it happened so fast, and - I had no idea that he would -’ he is interrupted by Reed Richards who announces that form what he has seen on these kids’ website, and what Gravity has told him, he can’t blame himself. ‘With the abilities this one had…it would have been next to impossible to stop him from instantly committing a terrorist act of suicide’.
The skeletal remains of Warhead can be seen floating in the green radiation, Without looking up from one of the screens he is watching, Reed remarks that Ben and Johnny tell him Gravity saved the entire cosmos once. ‘Statistically speaking, you’ve already accomplished an infinite amount of good’ he adds. ‘But that’s… it’s not enough, Sir. Anything I can do to -’ Gravity begins, but Reed tells him that he has contained as much of the radiation and Johnny is atomizing the fallout, while the hunt for the rest of the so-called Bastards of Evil is underway. ‘They will be made to account for their crimes’ Reed promises, before suggesting that if Gravity’s gravitational field can work through a lead suit, he suspects the emergency services could use his help with debris removal, but that is about the extent of what assistance he can provide at this moment. ‘But, Sir -’ Gravity protests. ‘You’re welcome to call me Reed’ Mr Fantastic tells the young hero, before excusing himself, as there is still a great deal of data for him to process to ensure the contamination is fully eradicated. ‘But -’ Gravity utters.
Suddenly: ‘Gravity!’ a voice calls out from above. Gravity looks up to see Firestar flying overhead. He flies up to join her, as Firestar announces that she spoke with the Avengers. ‘And?’ Gravity asks. Firestar reports that they debriefed her, thanked her and told her that they have things covered. ‘They say they’ll “keep me in the loop”’ she adds. Gravity tells her that is pretty much the same thing here. ‘But, I mean, you used to be an Avenger. That’s just…’ his voice trails off, as Firestar points out that it is a huge deal, Warhead lighting up Ground Zero like that - a massive wound has been reopened. ‘Uh-huh’ Gravity replies. Firestar asks him if he has slept. ‘Whu…? Sorry, I - ‘ Gravity begins, before telling Firestar that they might have been sidelined by the big guns, but he is not sitting on the bench. ‘I can do it’ he declares. ‘No. Exactly’ Firestar agrees, telling Gravity that she is with him. ‘Well. Okay then… where do we start?’ Gravity asks. Firestar just smiles.
On a rooftop nearby, Benito stands and watches as Gravity and Firestar fly past, their energy signatures streaking behind them. ‘Benny…? Benito! You’re - it’s you!’ Nomad calls out as she leaps onto the rooftop, followed by Arana. ‘Toro?’ Arana asks. Benito steps backwards, ‘She knows my - only my sister called me Benny!’ Benito declares. Arana tells him that she is sorry about her friend, and explains that Nomad is from another reality, one where she knows him. ‘I know it sounds crazy, but, like…just trust me. It’s true’ she tells Benito. ‘Arana, what are you -? What’s he saying?’ Nomad asks as she doesn’t understand the language Benito and Anya are speaking. ‘I’m explaining about you, okay? You kinda weirded him out, like I said you would’ Arana explains. Benito puts a hand on Arana’s shoulder and asks her if she is hurt. ‘What? Me? No, I’m fine’ Arana replies. ‘Good. I’m glad’ Benito tells her, putting an arm around Arana.
‘Um, yeah, um… both of us, we’re glad we ran into you. We were hoping to, actually’ Arana tells Benito as she steps away from him. She informs him that they plan to find the people who did this yesterday, the guys who killed all the innocent people. ‘We want to stop them before they do it again’ she adds. ‘Can you ask him -’ Nomad begins, but Arana tells her to hang on. ‘We were wondering, Benito… will you help us?’ Arana asks. Benito replies that he doesn’t think he can. I’m not… I did not come here…’ his voice trails off. ‘What? Didn’t come here… legally? Hey, that’s not - we don’t’ care, we won’t make it our business… we just wanna get these guys’ Arana announces. In English, Benito says to Nomad ‘They done bad things. They… they should pay? Bad people should pay for bad things’. Nomad smiles at him, ‘Yes. Absolutely. They should pay’ she agrees. Benito looks out over to the radiation bubble, and announces that he will help - he will help them to pay.
Elsewhere: ‘That, right there… that’s an epic fail’ the young woman called Mortar exclaims as she sits at a table in a run-down apartment, watching the explosion with Warhead on a laptop. She laughs, and exclaims that Warhead is a tool and that he can’t enjoy the fruits of his labours, being dead. Ember tells Mortar that what he did took guts, to which Mortar replies ‘Uh-huh. And would that be the guts that were atomized the instant he offed himself?’
Singularity enters the kitchen, glass of red wine in one hand and announces that he is appalled, as he thought they were supposed to be more sophisticated than those savages across the ocean from them. ‘Oh, well, hey, not all of us put on airs and delude ourselves into thinking we can win Daddy’s love and attention’ Ember replies. ‘No, I understand… why would a dyed-in-the-wool racist like you take any pride in your heritage when you’ve learned that your birth father is Pyro?’ Singularity asks.
‘You shut up about that, man’ Ember exclaims. But Singularity just asks him how it feels knowing that he comes from the seed of a filthy mutant? ‘Does it make you want to, I don’t know, follow in Warhead’s footsteps?’ he asks. ‘I said ENOUGH!’ Ember exclaims, spinning around he tosses a burst of flame at Singularity, before muttering ‘Screw this. I’m outta here’ as he strides out of the kitchen. Singularity smiles at Mortar and remarks that he thinks their teammate might have a tiny temper problem. ‘And you think you should be the one running this crew ‘stead of Aftershock? You crack me up’ Mortar replies, before Singularity asks Mortar if she has any idea of why they haven’t heard from Aftershock yet?
Elsewhere, in a room plunged into darkness, the only light from the glow emitted by Aftershock. ‘Your father would be so proud’ a voice calls out from a chair in the room. ‘Whatever. That’s Singularity’s thing Anyway, it’s not the point’ Aftershock replies. She turns in the direction of the voice and boasts that she has zero problem killing. ‘I’ve proven it to you time and again. But tell me…tell me this wasn’t part of the plan’. ‘What if it were?’ the person sitting on the chair asks. ‘What if I told Warhead to detonate at Ground Zero? To send a message greater than any we could have accomplished by laying waste to Manhattan’s financial district? Would you have objected to my decision?’ he asks. Aftershock replies that wouldn’t, but that it caught them all by surprise. ‘Especially - you put me in charge. If I’d have known -’ she begins, to which the person in the shadows claims that they gave no such order, and points out that they all knew that Warhead would eventually snap - it was only a matter of when.
Aftershock announces that it is too much - they are down by one and every damn super hero in the book is gunning for them. ‘We gotta lay low now, right?’ she asks. But the figure in the shadows tells her ‘Just the opposite. We adapt to the climate. We strike harder than before’. Aftershock asks how they can do that. ‘If you look at any wall just right, you will find that it is not a wall…but a doorway’ a figure with green skin in the shadows smiles.
Meanwhile, ‘I’m not even joking - if you don’t level with me right this second I will have zero problem letting go’ Gravity tells a man who he holds upside down, high in the air. ‘Hey, bro. you don’t gotta do all this! What they did, them kids, it ain’t copacetic!’ the man replies. Gravity puts the man down on a rooftop nearby without harming him, before taking flight once more with Firestar. ‘Well, you tried. Even had me convinced you’d actually let him fall to his death’ Angelica remarks. ‘Yeah’ Gravity replies, before asking ‘Who’s next?’ As they descent to another rooftop, Firestar tells him that was it - that they have visited every last super villain hanger-on and wannabe from her New Warrior days. ‘So no we just, what? Just wait?’ Gravity asks, declaring that there has gotta be something they could be doing right now - someone who knows something. ‘I mean - a bunch of people were murdered in cold blood yesterday! Just killed ! For kicks!’ he shouts. ‘And no one’s giving up the killers? What the hell’s gone wrong with the world?’
Ted’s Internet Café, Rikki, Anya and Benito sit at some computers. Anya wears a cap and some dark sun glasses and exclaims ‘Can you believe this? Over on Facebook, there’s a “Million Strong Against the Bastards” fanpage competing with a “Bastards Rule Your Face” fanpage. Horrified, she adds, that better yet, on the Bastards of Evil website, there is an actual memorial page for Warhead, with thousands of comments. ‘Hey! Stupid internets! Innocent people died!’ Anya exclaims, before leaning back in her chair, remarking that dozens of feelers put out on boards and blogs and chat rooms - 231 re-tweets of her call to arms so far and nothing back but noise and spam. ‘And this disturbing pro-Bastards crap’ she adds.
‘Hey, are you someone famous!’ a blond man asks as he walks up to Anya. ‘What? No’ Anya replies. ‘You’re dressed like Perez Hilton with the cap and glasses?’ the man adds. ‘Please go away’ Anya tells him. Rikki turns to Benny and tells Anya that she doesn’t know why she feels the need to hide her identity from him. ‘You mean my secret identity? Yeah, why would I feel that way?’ Anya mutters in response. Benny declares that this sitting here is not what he had in mind when he said he would help. Anya tells him that they have to find these dudes before they can do anything else about - but Benny interrupts, ‘And your friend Rikki won’t stop staring at me’ he points out. ‘What? What about me?’ Rikki asks as Benny stands up. ‘This is no good. I go’ Benny tells the girl, but Rikki asks him to stay, and promises to explain everything.
‘A-ha!’ Anya exclaims. Rikki leans over her and asks ‘What is it?’ Anya reports that a guy up in Queens just vid capped this off a traffic cam. ‘And… it’s a guy in a hoodie’ Rikki points out, looking at the computer screen, depicting a guy crossing the road. ‘Yeah, it’s a guy in a hoodie, but look. Watch what happens when he steps into the puddle -’ Anya explains. The puddle suddenly evaporates under the man’s feet. ‘Ember. We got Ember’ Rikki smiles.
At that moment, Firestar sits on the ledge of a high-rise building. ‘How are you not getting angry?’ Gravity calls out to her, from where he leans against the wall nearby. ‘What?’ Angelica asks. ‘Angry. I mean…how could your blood not be boiling after what happened yesterday?’ Greg enquires, asking her if she has been at this for so long that she has become desensitized toward death. Angelica stands up, ‘Okay, you’re clearly in a state right now -’ she begins. ‘A state?’ Greg exclaims. ‘- but for you to suggest that I don’t care when I’m, out here just like you -’ Angelica continues, to which Gravity starts to say ‘Whoa, hey -’, but Angelica continues: ‘Yes, Gravity, I have been fighting this fight for some time, which is why I’m able to channel my anger into something constructive - like calling out an area super villain whose daughter recently committed a horrifically offensive and violent attack on Wall Street’ Firestar declares.
‘And as for my stance on the value of life -’ she begins, but Gravity replies ‘I think we got - I wasn’t trying to be - it’s just, I just, I’m having a tough time with this and -’, suddenly, a brilliant light shines down on them, and Gravity asks Firestar if it seems a bit bright to her? There is a blast of energy, and Gravity falls backwards - off the edge of the rooftop, but Firestar leans over and grabs him. ‘I got you!’ she exclaims, as a giant-sized Electro appears over them. ‘So…I take it you’re the brats been looking for me?’ the villain asks.
Another rooftop, in Queens: Nomad, Arana and Toro look down at the road where the video showed Ember crossing earlier. ‘Okay, so… how long ago was that video taken?’ Nomad asks. Arana replies that it was twelve minutes ago. ‘And he was going which way from here?’ Nomad asks. Arana announces that he was going north, to which Nomad enquires if there has been any more sightings from her guy. ‘Nope’ Arana replies. Nomad tells the others that Ember could be anywhere by now. ‘I mean, where -?’ she begins, before Toro points several blocks away, where and explosion has just occurred. ‘There’ he tells the girls.
Indeed, down on the street, Ember has et two cars on fire. Civilians run for their lives, as Ember exclaims ’Fiesta all up in yo face, tacos!’ and boasts that Warhead has nothing on him. ’He wasted random folks, but I’m doing the world a public -’ he begins as some webbing is tied around him. ’You are not gonna finish that thought!’ Arana exclaims. Ember turns to see her on a car nearby, ’Oh. It’s you. I was wondering when I’d finally get to make you feel all warn and toasty again, chica…’. The car that Arana was on suddenly explodes as Ember breaks free from the webbing, and fires a burst of flame at the car. Arana leaps into the air and swings over the flames, ’Why you gotta run? Just trying to kill ya s’all…’ Ember calls out after her. ’Now! Do it now!’ Arana shouts.
‘Hey, Ember. Thirsty?’ Nomad asks as she slams her energy shield into a fire hydrant, sending water blasting towards Ember. ’No! You stupid bi-!’ Ember shouts as he falls to the ground, steam rising from where he was dowsed, Ember coughs, while Toro walks towards him, and grabs the back of his neck. ‘Crushing’ Ember mutters. ‘You are bad. You kill. You do not live’ Toro replies, before Arana and Nomad rush over to him and pull him back. ‘Toro!’ Arana exclaims. ‘Enough! You’re killing him!’ Nomad declares, before reminding him that the plan was to knock Ember unconscious. ‘What are you thinking?’ Arana asks. ‘He deserves to be punished. He deserves death’ Toro announces. ‘I don’t know how you do the super hero thing where you come from, but -’ Arana begins, before Ember blasts Toro from behind with a surge of flame. ‘Ow, my eyes…tell me he didn’t just -’ Nomad calls out. ‘He did’ Arana responds. They gather themselves and turn to see that Ember has fled. ‘Damn it. We had him’ Nomad mutters. Toro frowns at the girls, who hang their heads.
Back on the rooftop, ‘We aren’t looking for a fight, Electro!’ Firestar calls out as she blocks his electricity with a blast of microwave energy. ‘That’s gotta explain why you’re attacking me’ Electro remarks, now back to his default size. ‘If you’d just listen to what -’ Firestar begins, while Gravity flies up to Electro and punches him in the face: ‘This is supposed to be for your daughter - but I’m more than happy to deliver an ass-kicking to the piece of work responsible for her!’ Gravity exclaims. Firestar calls out to Gravity, ‘Don’t! He’s letting you get in close so he can -’ she begins, to which Electro blasts Gravity back with electrical fury. ‘News flash, kid - not everything you read’s the truth - especially on the web’ he remarks.
‘So you flat out deny that Aftershock’s your daughter? And here I thought you’d be proud of her!’ Firestar exclaims as she circles Electro, wrapping microwave energy around him. ‘These are, what - microwaves? Well, then, that changes things, don’t it? Thanks for the fuel!’ Electro replies as he casts electrical currents through Firestar’s energy, knocking her back. ‘Don’t you dare hurt her or I swear I’ll -’ Gravity calls out as he speeds towards Electro, who responds by striking the young hero with another blast of energy. Both Firestar and Gravity fall to the rooftop, and Electro looms over them as they father themselves. ‘The only reason I’m letting the two of you live through your mistake of coming after me is that I need you to pass along a message’ Electro calls down to them.
Electro admits that he is no saint, but points out that he doesn’t go around killing people willy-nilly and he would never pull that suicide bomber crap. ‘And Ground Zero? Even for me, that’s low’ he declares, announcing that in no way does he endorse the acts of horror of a girl and her friends. ‘How and when I got these powers, you can look it up, no, you will look it up. You’ll see how long I been like this and then, if you got a brain cell between you…you’ll do the math. That girl can’t be my daughter. It’d be impossible!’ Electro boasts, while Firestar glances at Gravity as the two struggle to get up….


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Now, Not Tomorrow, part three: Down Time
‘I should kill you!’ Singularity exclaims as he grabs Ember by the throat inside the Bastards of Evil’s run-down hideout. ‘We. We should kill you’ their teammate Mortar declares as she swishes over in her malleable form. ‘This ass right here started!’ Ember retorts, referring to Singularity, to which the uppity villain asks ‘Oh, did I tell you to throw a three-year-old’s tantrum and then run out and thrill kill a bunch of minorities, Adolf?’ Ember tries to push Singularity off of him, as Singularity points out that Ember didn’t even bring along a recording drone. ‘Don’t you want to make a real statement? Do you want Warhead’s idiot sacrifice you’re so impressed by to be for nothing?’ he asks, before pulling away from Ember, ‘No, you’d just rather get caught like a common criminal!’ Singularity points out, before telling Ember that there is no way they would come to save his ass like they did with Warhead. Mortar points out that is not Singularity’s call to make, to which he mutters ‘Oh, right. Forgot. Our “team leader”, who still hasn’t shown up to lead the team?’
Suddenly, through electricity pouring from a light fitting above, a young woman materializes. ‘Got a problem, Singularity?’ she snaps. ‘Aftershock! Yeah. Deh fuehrer here -’ Singularity begins, to which Aftershock cuts him off, revealing that Mortar filled her in, before informing him that if he has a problem with her status, he can take it up with their superior. ‘Got it?’ she suggests, before powering down and informing her teammates that they have their next assignment, and it is a good one. ‘So soon? I thought we’d lay low…’ Mortar begins, but Aftershock tells her that is exactly what they don’t want. She fires some power at a television, switching it on and declaring that they need to take advantage of the effect Warhead’s martyrdom has had on the populace. She adds that they need to impress upon them even further that their heroes do not make them safe. ‘So…we’re gonna meet up with a couple of our newest acquaintances… and kill them’ Aftershock announces, referring to the two young heroes shown on the television - Arana and Nomad!
At school, Rikki Barnes sits at her desk and text-messages her friend Anya Corazon, telling her that math is killing her. Anya texts back, telling Rikki that she feels the same, and adds that she wants to be hunting. Rikki responds by asking Anya if she has got anywhere finding them. Anya texts back that she thinks so, to which Rikki asks for details. “Not now” is what Anya texts back, before putting her phone down as her teacher calls out to her. Soon, in the corridor, Anya is at her locker, ‘What did you find, Anya? Tell me!’ Rikki exclaims as she rushes over. Anya reveals that the Bastards’ site itself is hosted offshore and owned by a maze of shell corporations, so that s no help. ‘Okay…’ Rikki replies, and Anya informs her that no one has found anything in the site’s structure that would point to any particular designer. ‘Right…’ Rikki remarks, before Anya reveals that there is something peculiar: ‘All the videos before the Ground Zero one, none of them appear together. They’re all over the country, on their own’.
Anya continues, explaining that the earliest videos, the smallest offenses, they all take place somewhere in the Southwest. She tells Rikki that Aftershock’s first three were shot around the same town in Colorado, and she has started making inquiries there. ‘Don’t really know what I’ll find exactly, but it’s gotta mean something, right?’ Anya adds. Rikki tells Anya that, regardless, she thinks they should find Benny and bring him back into the loop. ‘Hey, I know you guys were friends -’ Anya starts to reply, as Rikki glances sideways and tells her friend ‘Actually, for a little while? We were…we, ah…’ her voice trails off. ‘No way. You and him?’ Anya asks, wide-eyed. Rikki tells her that he is a little different back on her world, granted, but that this Benny is a good guy deep down. ‘I know he is’ she declares, before pointing out that they need his strength. Anya turns her back on her friend, ‘Do I need to remind you that he just almost murdered someone? On purpose’ she declares. ‘And he saved your life, Anya’ Rikki points out, grabbing her friend by her shoulder. Anya looks back at Rikki and assures her that she is not forgetting that. ‘But I’ll bet you anything you don’t known Toro a fraction as well as you think you do’ she adds, causing Rikki to look concerned.
Elsewhere, in an empty children’s playground, Benito Serrao holds a few stone chips in his hand as he sits on one of the turn-style type structures. His mind wanders back to an earlier encounter:
In Toro’s memory / flashback‘Toro, what the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Arana shouts. ‘Do you realize we woulda had him if you’d just followed Nomad’s plan?’ she adds, asking him if he doesn’t realize how badly he has messed things up. ‘I’m not the one! It’s you!’ Toro retorts, telling Arana that if she hadn’t stopped him, Ember would be dead, but instead he is free to kill again. ‘And whose fault is that?’ he points out. ‘You just attempted murder and you’re scolding us?’ Arana exclaims, while Nomad looks on. ‘I think you’re forgetting one minor detail, pal - if we’d subdued him, we coulda found out where the others were hiding! Moron!’ Arana shouts.
PresentSuddenly: ‘You on our turf, hoss’ a voice calls out. Benito turns to see four other young men approaching him. ‘Said, you on our corner. We the only ones do bidness here, hoss’ one of the other young men repeats. ‘Best bounce, yo’ another suggests. ‘No English’ Benny replies, turning away from the gang. “No English?” one of the gang members quotes. ‘Don’t you know you in America?’ he smirks. ‘We can school ‘im’ another suggests, producing a knife. ‘That we can, son’ the first replies, suggesting that they start with “felonious assault”. He laughs, but before he and the other gang members can attack Benny, he has picked up a metal pole lying on the turn style and smacks it into the thug’s face. ‘Mutha -’ one of the other thugs begins as he raises his knife to Benny, who responds by grabbing his wrist, and slamming the pole into another of the thugs. He twists the other thug’s wrist back so that he forces the knife into his chest.
‘You gots to go down now’ the remaining gang member declares, aiming a gun at Benny, he fires, narrowly missing Benny, who races over to him and grabs him, snapping his finger back, causing the young thug to drop to his knees. Benny points the gun at the thug’s head, to which the young thug asks ‘Well? Juss gonna stand there looking like a punk or what? Do it, already!’ he exclaims. Tears start streaming down his face, ‘How it’s got to go, hoss. You know…we don’t make the game. Game make us’ the young thug declares. Benny puts the gun right to the young thug’s head, but instead of pulling the trigger, he just slams it into his face, knocking him out. The four thugs lie unconscious on the playground, ‘Not hoss. Benito’ Benny declares as he leaves.
Meanwhile, Greg Willis a.k.a. the young hero Gravity is in his dorm room, ‘No mercy. They never show any mercy’ he remarks as he does some research on his laptop. ‘Aw, Greg, dude - would you please stop poring over the Bastards of Evil video archives?’ his roommate and friend Frog asks. Frog is lying on his bed, checking his phone, and tells Greg that he is starting to freak him out with this obsession of his. Greg doesn’t answer, and Frog sits up, asking Greg what he had for breakfast. ‘Wait, don’t tell me, cause I know- nothing’. He then asks Greg what he had for lunch, before remarking that it was probably the same answer. ‘Go to any classes today? Silly me. Of course not’ Frog remarks. ‘What’s this…?’ Greg utters, wide-eyed, as he clicks on another link. Frog suggests to him that he at least take a shower, and then he could potentially visit the world outside their dorm room in person. ‘You’re right, Frog. I should go out’ Greg smiles, closing his laptop. ‘Yes! This is what I’m saying!’ Frog exclaims, reminding Greg not to forget about the shower, while Greg picks up a piece of paper from his notepad.
Elsewhere:‘Why. Why. Why. Why does this paper have to be due tomorrow’ Angelica “Firestar” Jones mutters to herself as she sits at a table on the sidewalk outside a café, laptop open in front of her. ‘Probably because the world likes to mess with you, Angie’ a voice calls out. ‘Patsy’ Angelica replies as she looks up and sees her close friend Patsy Walker a.k.a. Hellcat pulling a chair up to the table. ‘Oh, so you do remember me?’ Patsy smiles. ‘I know, I know, I’m a bad friend’ Angelica confesses. Patsy assures Angelica that she didn’t come to rag on her, but tells her that the least she could have done is let her friends know she is alive.  ‘I would’ve been sure you’d died in that awful bombing the other day if it wasn’t for that clobbering from Electro I saw you take on the nightly news’ Patsy smiles. ‘Uch. Don’t remind me…’ Angelica replies.
Patsy reminds her friend that she can tell when she is trying not to vent, and asks her what is going on. Angelica informs Patsy that, basically, the grown-up super folk are shutting them out of the hunt for the Bastards of Evil, so she and Gravity have been doing some of their own legwork. ‘So that’s who the other guy was? The news didn’t seem sure’ Patsy remarks, to which Angelica announces that she isn’t sure if she should keep doing this. ‘I mean, it’s the right thing to do, there’s no doubt about it…but every time I go out, I’m falling behind on my classes. That stresses me out, which just puts me further behind and…round and round it goes’. Patsy asks Angelica how she is feeling remission wise, and Angelica assures her that she is mostly okay, but that dealing with powers like Electro and his daughter, all the EM radiation she takes in - suddenly, her phone beeps. ‘What is it?’ Patsy asks. Angelica reads the email and reports that it is from Gravity, and he wants her to meet him, as it is urgent. ‘Well, better get going, then’ Patsy smiles.
Soon, people on a sidewalk stare up in awe as Firestar and Gravity fly above them. ‘First off, let me just - I feel really bad about barking at you. I’m sorry’ Gravity tells Firestar, who assures him that it is okay. Gravity points out that Electro was right - barring time travel or accelerated aging or something, there is no way he could have a teenager with his powers in the here and now. ‘Is that what you needed to see me about? Because -’ Firestar begins, but Gravity announces that the other three from Ground Zero - Arana and her friends - they tracked down one of the Bastards. ‘What? What happened?’ Firestar asks, intrigued. Gravity reports that he got away, but that Arana and her friends have leads that the two of them don’t have. ‘We have to reach them’ he urges Firestar. ‘Okay, so…not to be mean, but…why exactly do I need to be here right now? To give permission? If you need to contact them, then contact them’ Firestar declares, causing the unshaven Gravity to look at her, puzzled.
‘Thank you. Thank you so much’ Anya exclaims as she speaks to someone on her mobile phone. ‘And?’ Rikki asks. ‘Confirmed. This is her for sure’ Anya announces. ‘So we know who Aftershock is…’ Rikki begins, before they leave the internet café, and walking down the street, Rikki asks what they do with that information, as it is not going to help them find her or the other Bastards. ‘It’s something, Rikki. And any little fact can become the lynchpin of an investigation’ Anya points out. The girls are unaware that Benito is looking for them. He presses his face up to the glass of the internet café they have just left, not realizing that he has only just missed them.
‘It can get pretty lonely’ Mortar remarks as she reclines on a sofa in the Bastards of Evil’s run down hideout. ‘What can?’ Singularity asks as he sits back on a chair near her. ‘This body. This…formlessness. Anyone I touch, I don’t really touch ‘em. I don’t feel ‘em’ Mortar explains, adding that it creates a distance, like she is in purgatory. She strokes the sofa and declares that she loves the things that she can do - watching people recoil in horror because of her, watching them drown in her, knowing with every ounce of their souls that they are going to die. ‘The honesty in that last moment. Such a gift’ she remarks. Empty bottles and packets lie on the floor around them as Singularity asks Mortar if she ever wonders if her old man feels the same when he turns people to stone. ‘Ehh, never met the guy, so I guess I don’t really care one way or the other’ Mortar replies, before pointing out that Singularity knew his, and asks him if he has any memories. Singularity reveals that he was five, and his mom wanted his dad out of their lives, so she made it perfectly clear, and his dad didn’t even put up a fight. ‘I remember I was so angry with him. Why’d he give up so easily? Why didn’t he want to be with me anymore?’ Singularity slumps forward on his chair, ‘But then he said to me…’
Flashback‘Son. I know that, in your eyes, I’m leaving you… but the reality is, I’m giving you the chance I never had’ Graviton tells his young son on the steps of their brownstone. ‘You come from a long line of men of great strength. Men who stand for something and stick to their convictions’ Graviton adds as the young boy listens intently. Graviton declares that his son won’t be lorded over by the generation before, that he will have the opportunity to decide for himself who he is and what he stands for. ‘To find your own strength, in your own way’. Graviton then takes flight, while his young son looks up at him. ‘You represent the dawn of a great new era of strength. I know you won’t let me down’ Graviton calls back, and the little boy smiles.
PresentSingularity declares that he can still smell the lilac from the trees. ‘Funny how that works’ he remarks. ‘Wow. Now that is one massive load of daddy dung’ a voice calls out. Singularity and Mortar turn to the doorway and see Aftershock standing there. ‘Excuse me?’ Singularity frowns, standing up. ‘He obviously fed you a line, Sing. I’m sure the truth was he didn’t wanna be saddled with a little rugrat anymore’ Aftershock tells him, but Singularity replies that Aftershock doesn’t know what she is talking about - why would she? They stare each other down, and Singularity asks Aftershock if she has even met her dad, adding that everything he has ever read about Max Dillon suggests that he is a perverse and pathetic tool of the highest order. Aftershock turns away from Singularity and informs he and Mortar that they are leaving here in five.
Back in Gravity’s dorm room, he sits at his laptop, going over the footage of Warhead’s suicide once more. ‘Dude. Hey, man…hey!’ Frog calls out, eventually pulling Greg’s earphones out. ‘GHAAH! You scared the living hell outta me! What do you want?’ Greg exclaims, standing up. ‘If you don’t turn that damn thing off, I’m gonna take an axe to it’ Frog exclaims. ‘What?’ Greg snaps. ‘I’m serious’ Frog tells him. Greg points at the laptop and tells Frog that he may not realize this, but people died that day - real, actual people. ‘Now, maybe you don’t care about that sort of thing unless it’s one of your video games, but -’ Greg begins, to which Frog interrupts, explaining that just because he doesn’t obsess over the footage to the point of inaction somehow, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. ‘Inaction? Are you saying I - if there was anything I could do, don’t you think I would do it?’ an enraged Greg shouts, clenching his fists.
‘Hey…Greg…’ Frog exclaims, backing away. ‘Crap. I’m losing it, aren’t I?’ Greg sits down on his bed, ‘If Gravity - if he’d just killed Warhead -’ Greg begins, but Frog tells his friend that the only one responsible for that dude’s actions is that dude - he made his own choice. ‘Super heroes don’t kill’ Frog adds. Frog puts a hand on Greg’s back and tells him that he can’t keep watching that stuff. ‘I did it with 9/11 and it did not lead to anything productive’ he remarks, adding that if Greg really wants to make a difference, he could donate money or his time. ‘You could…oh! That’ Spider-Girl - Arana - whatever she is now. She’s been all over the net looking for help tracking these Bastard guys down’ Frog announces, suggesting that there might be a small way Greg can help her out.
Meanwhile, Firestar flies through the city, ‘Am I really so far removed from my own teen years that I dismissed those girls as potential resources? I feel like a complete jerk’ she tells herself. ‘Join the club’ Gravity declares as he flies alongside Firestar. ‘Here I am e-mailing with you this whole time and it never even occurs to me to reach out to them on the web - especially after their run-in with Ember’ he points out. Firestar tells Gravity that they are in touch wit them now, and that is what matters. ‘This is here you said we’d meet?’ she asks as they drop down onto a rooftop. ‘Yeah’ Gravity replies, looking out to the force field surrounding Ground Zero. ‘Figured it was appropriate’ he remarks.
‘What’d he say?’ Rikki, dressed in costume as Nomad, asks as she and Anya, dressed as Arana, leap across some rooftops. ‘Gravity? That he has some special insight on the Bastards that he wanted to share’ Arana responds. ‘And we know this e-mail’s really from him because…?’ Nomad asks. ‘He had details about the fight downtown’ Arana informs her. ‘The fight. Which was recorded and broadcast all over the internet’ Nomad reminds her friend, reminding Arana how Professor Power lured them right into a trap wherein she was poisoned and almost died. ‘So we’ll scout a little first. Make sure it’s for real, okay?’ Arana replies, swinging off again after they stop on a rooftop, Arana calls back ‘Let’s go, Gramma Nomad. Don’t wanna be late!’
‘So… they’re late?’ Firestar asks as she and Gravity sit near each other on a rooftop edge. ‘They’re late’ Gravity confirms. Firestar asks him when he told the others they would meet. ‘Half an hour ago’ Gravity replies. He wonders if Arana hasn’t got the message yet, as it is not like she emailed back or anything. ‘Wait. You dragged me out here when we don’t even know for sure they they’re showing up?’ Firestar exclaims, annoyed. ‘They want the Bastards as badly as we do, Firestar. They’ll be here’ Gravity replies.
‘Okay, so, where are they?’ Nomad asks as she and Arana stand on a rooftop and look around. ‘Are you sure you got the time and place right?’ she asks. Arana replies that she is positive, and that she even e-mailed him back to confirm and he said “You got it, doll. See you then”. ‘Doll?’ Nomad asks. Suddenly, ‘Hey there, doll’ a voice calls out, and Arana and Nomad turn around, their jaws drop, as standing before them are Mortar, Singularity, Ember and Aftershock, who asks ‘You all wanna party?’