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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

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A World of Hurt
On the mysterious Blue Area of the Moon is the S.H.I.E.L.D. Lunar Station Number One. In one of the rooms in the ship, two workers, a man and a woman, dressed up in the same yellow space suit, wonder what is going on down on Earth. The man asks the woman if she has any kids. She tells them that they live in Cincinnati, but she has not heard from them in days.
The man picks up some equipment that needs to be moved as the women complains that there are aliens all over Earth and here they are on the moon guarding the Kree Supreme Intelligence. It’s almost funny to her. She joined with S.H.I.E.L.D. to protect her family and country. Now they are dealing with it while they are stuck up in space. The man agrees with her and the two turn to walk down the hallway. Silently behind them, Hawkeye and the Thunderbolts tiptoe behind the two workers to parts unknown on the ship.
Down on Earth, S.H.I.E.L.D. troops, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer continue to try and slow down the spread of Ego in Nebraska. Ego has now spread over a town and swallows everything in sight, which includes houses and cars. Several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents fly over Ego’s face on skimmers while Iron Man also flies overhead with a handheld machine to scan the biomass.
Iron Man lands by the coast where the Fantastic Four are busy building a machine. Iron Man reports that the biomass is still growing. Reed tells Ben to place the unit he is carrying on the power-feed so Johnny can weld them together. He then turns to Iron Man and tells him that he did not expect anything to change; he had just hoped it would. Iron Man asks about the Ego host. Reed confirms that it was a living being. Tests were run on the remains that Agent Magruder salvaged and it was confirmed.
Iron Man calls in to Wasp. She responds and asks for an update. Iron Man tells her that Ego is spreading, but he and Reed have slowed him down with bio-retardants broadcasts. However, Ego-filaments are spreading underground and emerging in Los Angeles and Russia, as well as other places around the globe. He and Reed have come up with the idea that they can reverse the process and reabsorb Ego into another host that can contain him. The Silver Surfer has agreed to be that host, but they still do not know if it will work or not or how to even reabsorb Ego.
Back at Avengers Mansion, in New York City, the Wasp breaks contact and goes back to what she has been doing for the last four hours. On the screen in front of her she continues to monitor the alien invasion. Jarvis brings tea for her and U.S.Agent, who is outraged that they are taking a tea break in the middle of a war. Jan reminds U.S.Agent that the Avengers were asked to coordinate activities among the superhuman community and he appointed himself their liaison, so he is here on his own choice.
Jan turns back to the monitor and tells him that the others are doing what they can. On the monitor she shows him that Captain America is fighting something at the Statue of Liberty. The Scarlet Witch is at the Hudson, while Triathlon is in Midtown. On the screen, images of the Scarlet With using her hex to warp the water around her enemies appears, as does a video feed of Triathlon taunting his enemy as he kicks him in the side of the head.
Jan switches to other video feeds and shows U.S.Agent that it is more than just Avengers in the field. Video from KTLA in Los Angeles is showing Captain Marvel in a battle and video from B.B.C. shows Union Jack fighting some reptilian aliens. Jan gets up from her seat and also informs U.S.Agent that Spider-Man, the Hulk and the Punisher have also been reported to be in fights with aliens. They have not been able to reach the X-Men, but there have been reports of the team fighting something in New Orleans. However, there has been no word from them since. U.S.Agent begins to interject, but Jan tells him that someone has to be command central.
At that moment, Vision and Warbird come in. Vision agrees with Jan and tells her that he and Warbird have returned from their mission. Warbird cuts him off and tells the two other heroes that they brought company with them. Jan is shocked to see Beta-Ray Bill. She is about to ask Bill how he got here, but Bill already knows she would ask that and wastes no time to tell his story.
It was not Bill’s choice to come to Earth, though he does not mean that in any offensive way. He had been looking for supplies when he was attacked by the Galactic Patrol, who held him down and put a collar on his neck, which subdued him. He was taken to a processing center and put through a power-dampening field that he could not resist. There were many races there among his captors, but the ones who seemed to be in charge were called the Ruul.
Jan is confused as she has never heard of them before and wonders why they would be angry at Earth. Bill, unfortunately, does not know anything else except that they transported him to Earth and released him. Vision offers a possible explanation. It could be that the Ruul are dispassionate and are doing this act to ingratiate themselves with the intergalactic powers. Vision is about to offer another explanation when an angry U.S.Agent interrupts and tells them that he is sick and tired of all the talk. They know already who is running the operation and that person is Ronan the Accuser. Right now he is up in the stratosphere, laughing at them in the Citadel. If they break him, they break his hold on Earth.
Jan tells U.S.Agent that they do not have a way to get past Ronan’s defenses yet, but they are working on it. Until they do find a way to get to him, he can easily destroy any ship that approaches. Also, they don’t have the manpower yet to defeat him as Earth’s heroes are fighting the alien threat on Earth. Finally, the angry Wasp also reminds her arrogant companion that they are still trying to get at the powers that are behind Ronan.
U.S.Agent puts his helmet back on and tells her to her face that she is using a stupid approach. That is what the bad guys want them to do. They want Earth to fight the prisoners so that they will never get to those in charge. U.S.Agent charges out and says that, if they need manpower, he will get it from the aliens themselves. They don’t want to be on Earth anymore than they want them to be. They will fight Ronan even if the Avengers are too cowardly to do so.
U.S.Agent leaves, even though Jan calls after him. She gives up and tells Vision and Warbird to catch the next situation report. She tells Bill that they would appreciate any help, if he is willing. She then goes to the computer console and calls Goliath and asks him if he has any progress. Goliath tells her no. He would like to work on finding a way to prevent Ronan from sensing and teleporting them away, but right now he is trying to work on a machine to get past the barrier so they can contact someone on the outside.
Warbird hopes that they can reach someone, like the Starjammers and Firelord. Jan thinks of Deathcry and Century. Jarvis comes up behind them and tells them that if conventional communication won’t work, there is another option. Quasar contacted the mansion from space a little while ago and the Quantum-Link might still be active. Overjoyed, Jan kisses Jarvis on the check and tells him that he is brilliant.
Goliath taps into the Quantum-Link and, soon in Rigellian space, Quasar gets a signal on his Q-band. However, he, Photon, Jack of Hearts, Moondragon, Tigra, Starfox and Thor are busy fighting against the Galactic Patrol. Photon wonders who they are and why they keep on coming after them. Quasar answers his Q-Band and asks if he can call her back, as he is busy at the moment. Jan is not surprised and quickly explains what is going on. Things make more sense to Quasar and he tells Jan that they will do whatever is necessary on the other side, including finding friends in space. The communication is cut short when an attacker jumps onto Quasar.
On the planet Selandiar, which is the home to the Intergalactic Council, the sounds of battle cannot be heard in space, but in the council’s administrative cantonment it is another matter. Cadre K attacks the Shi’ar guards. Fiz leads the charge while Nuro knocks out those on the right. Spunje uses his acid needles to take out the guards directly in front. Professor Xavier and Bishop follow them while Xavier telepathically tells Cadre K to remember their goal, which is to reach Lilandra.
It all started when one in their number was captured, a young Skrull telepath named Z’cann. Recently, Xavier found his long lost student Bishop and created a two-pronged plan that depends on swift action and success on both fronts. Fiz takes down that last of the Shi’ar guards and Cadre K enters the cantonment.
Skrull Ambassador Kreddik is horrified to see the guards fall and tells the others that none of them are safe from the “freaks.” Sintariis of the Ruul tells Kreddik not to have fear. The council guard is bringing out the psion-batteries. The guard does just that and rushes towards the Cadre before they can reach the delegates. Nuro tells them that they are not after the delegates; they just want to speak with Empress Lilandra.
The Kymellian ambassador tells his fellow delegates that maybe they should just let the Cadre speak to Lilandra for everyone’s safety. Disgusted, Kreddik refuses to acknowledge that the mutants are their equals. Sintariis tells the others that there is no need to disturb Lilandra. As leader of the council, she has weighty matters to concern her. Besides, continues Sintariis, the intruders will soon no longer be a threat. The guards use the psion-batteries, which shoot out an immense blast of green psionic energy, on Cadre K. The wave of noiseless sound hits the team and fills them with pain and agony. Xavier too falls; however, he falls with a smile on his face.
Back on Earth, U.S.Agent sends some S.T.A.R.S. agents out into the field to recruit alien criminals in the war against Ronan. On the banks of the Mississippi, an agent meets with some aliens in their makeshift camp and tries to explain that he is offering them a chance of freedom. They will train them and give them weapons. In the Rockies, another agent offers to return them to their loved ones. Their common enemy is hoping to turn them against each other. However, she stops and asks if any of them even understand what she is saying. In the Okeefenokee Swamp, an agent reports back to U.S.Agent and tells him that some prisoners can speak English and others are telepathic. None of them are aggressive, though, and many of them find Earth nicer than their home planets. They are now asking for food and medicine.
U.S.Agent tells the agent that he should keep trying. They will ask the prisoners in lockup if they have to, but he doesn’t want to bring that up to the commission unless he has to. He will find troops though, even if he has to draft them himself. U.S.Agent then asks for the next nearest location to him where clusters of aliens have been located.
Back in Nebraska, the heroes have slowed down Ego’s growth and stand dangerously close by him as Reed finishes work on his machine. Johnny jokingly sets Ben’s soda can on fire and Sue smacks him on the back of the head. Reed tells Iron Man that he does not like this. Iron Man agrees, but they cannot wait forever. He tells the Silver Surfer that he has been keeping Reed and Tony Stark in communication and the two have come up with a bio-compression protocol.
Reed tells the Surfer that theoretically they could project Ego into the Surfer, but they know so little about Ego and this experiment depends heavily on them matching the bio-matrices. Suddenly, there is a rumbling sound and to everyone’s horror, Ego breaks free and begins to violently expand once again.
The Surfer quickly uses his board to pick up the Thing and then blasts a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent free from Ego while the Invisible Woman catches him with a force field. She then makes a board of her own to carry her and the three agents away. Iron Man takes the machine while the Human Torch carries Reed. By the time they reach high ground and look back, the entire plain they were in is gone.
Ego begins to wake up and asks where he is. Reed sees this and realizes that Ego is now feeding off of the bio-containment field that was holding him back. There is no stopping him now. The Surfer looks at Ego and asks Reed if he salvaged enough equipment to make the bio-compression machine. Reed tells him that he has most of it, but the process is not perfected. It could kill the Surfer. The Surfer tells him that he has seen too many worlds die and he will not watch this one perish. He tells Reed to build the device; he will be ready when the machine is.
In Vermont, U.S.Agent’s plane, the Black Mariah, lands swiftly and quietly in the forest. U.S.Agent treks south to the coordinates he received. He thinks to himself that with his luck the aliens in the area are a bunch of pacifists who were kicked off their planter for being fuzzy bunnies. As he reaches the area, he finds something he did not expect at all. In a clearing in front of him, U.S.Agent finds some large brutish aliens constructing some sort of tower. He wonders if it is a temple, antenna or something like that when the aliens finish their job and leave. They fly away on a skimmer. U.S.Agent follows them, knowing they did not get that material or equipment on Earth, and he is pretty sure the intergalactic powers didn’t condemn them on Earth with construction equipment.
At the alien camp, the aliens complain, in grammatically poor English, that they are tired of these bodies. They like to be strong, but not stupid. Their leader tells them to shut up and to do what their master commands them. They disable the cloak on their base and enter. U.S.Agent overhears their conversation and realizes that they are not prisoners. They sound more like guards. They also resemble the guys in Ronan’s base, but the ones in the base were skinnier.
U.S.Agent figures that the aliens are the Ruul that Beta-Ray Bill was talking about. Inside the ship the base the aliens open a chest and pull something out. One of them says that they must contact the commander to give them their report. The Ruul worker takes the device and concentrates. The device emits a green energy, which swirls around the worker.
The horrified U.S.Agent realizes the truth. He recognizes the glow of the sphere from the Avengers files. The Ruul has an omni-wave device. There is only one race in the entire universe that can use an omni-wave for communication. The Ruul are not newcomers…they are Kree!
On the moon, the S.H.I.E.L.D. base is attacked. The troops rush to the breach, but are overwhelmed by the Ruul, who are in their more warrior-like form The S.H.I.E.L.D. team is one of the best trained teams in history. Against their assailants, they go down in seconds. The Ruul spread through the base and reach the two workers who were earlier complaining about not being where the action is on Earth. The Ruul quickly take them down and the battle is over.
The Ruul prowl through the base and search until they find the chamber they are looking for. The leader of the Ruul begins to straighten his back and undergoes an unnatural and painful transformation until the light of sentience comes into his eyes. Sintariis tells his leader that the Earth is now under their control and, soon, the entire universe will fall before the new Kree Empire and their unquestioned master: The Supreme Intelligence!  “Of course it is, Sintariis. And of course it will,” says the Supreme Intelligence, “I did not doubt it for a moment.”


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Whatever the Cost!
All is calm on the processing center just past Pluto. In the control room of the station, Sintariis watches over the activities of the technicians, who are in charge of transporting prisoners to Earth via the large semi-spherical transmat bay in the center of the room. Sintariis asks for a status report from one of the Ruul technicians. The technician tells him that all is secure. The barrier is at full strength and the sol system is under full quarantine. Sintariis begins to tell the technician to make sure it stays that way, but he is interrupted by an alarm.
Sintariis is alarmed by the intruder alarm going off. A technician tells him that there is a disturbance at the main transmat station on Earth. Someone is trying to teleport to the processing center from the receiving point. Sintariis is even more alarmed, considering that, after the humans attacked the station on Ellis Island, they tripled the forces there. He orders the technicians to cut off all links to the Ellis Island receiving station and decides to let Ronan the Accuser and the workers at the Citadel to deal with it. Horrified, another Ruul tells Sintariis that the controls have been overridden from the receiving point. The Ruul look at the transport hole, just in time to see a large group of beings appears.
Standing at the bottom of the bay are U.S.Agent,  the Avengers (minus Iron Man) and the Scarlet Witch, Captain America, She-Hulk, Hercules, Silverclaw, Spider-Man, the New Warriors, Rogue’s team of X-Men, Bishop, Sunfire, Namor the Submariner, Beta-Ray Bill, Union Jack, Darkstar, Cerise of the Shi’ar and a horde of alien prisoners, including the Blood Brothers. U.S.Agent turns to the assemblage of power and asks everyone if they are ready for a declaration of independence. Wolverine unsheathes his claws and tells U.S.Agent to quit the chat and let the war begin.
A Ruul named Dan-Farr tells Sintariis to call the guard, so they can regain the controls. Sintariis tells Dan-Farr to calm down. The barrier around the transmat bay is impregnable, as the one that surrounds the solar system. The heroes and aliens have no way of getting out of the bay without the Omega Codes.
In the bay, U.S.Agent takes out a device similar to a gun and tells the heroes that the Avengers and X-Men went through much trouble to get them the data they needed from the Citadel, so he hopes they work. Colossus and Rogue watch as U.S.Agent inserts a c.d. into his gun. Colossus tells him that all of them share that same wish. U.S.Agent aims the gun at the top of the barrier above the transmat bay and pulls the trigger. A beam of light is emitted, which is actually a complex harmonic code. The transmat bay accepts the Omega Codes and the barrier is no more!
Sintariis scream for the guards. The Ruul warriors come as a phalanx into the room, as the forces from Earth race to meet them. Sintariis tells a technician to contact the intergalactic council at once. He has no doubt that their guards can contain the Terrans, but he wants more troops just in case. The technician tells Sintariis that he is trying, but the communications are not functioning either.
From an adjacent room, Cadre K, Professor Xavier and the Black Panther watch, as the heroes and Ruul clash. Spunje tells Xavier that is appears the Bishop was able to get to Earth and explain the Professor’s plan to the heroes. Everyone is right on schedule. Xavier agrees and then reminds his Skrull students that none of this would be possible without them. They were the ones who risked being transported to the processing center with the tools to escape hidden inside their bodies and they were the ones who sabotaged the watchtower’s controls. Xavier turns to the Panther and thanks him, for without him they would have likely been discovered. The Panther tells Xavier that it was his pleasure, but he suggests they join their colleagues in battle.
On the planet called Hala, whose buildings appear to have sustained much damage, a group of Avengers sit imprisoned in a cell by the Ruul/Kree. Thor curses the indignity of being trapped by the Ruul, without any chance of escaping. Thor begins to flex his muscles to break his bonds, but is again reminded of the feedback system in the shackles, which uses his strength against him. The others also try to break free of their bonds, but also suffer the same pain as Thor does.
Tigra tells the others that they may have a chance. If the Ruul put so much effort into containing the most powerful of them, then they may have overlooked their least powerful. With her tail, Tigra tries to press the amulet on her chest. Finally, she is able to touch it, which causes her to revert back to her human form of Greer Nelson. Greer assumes that the Ruul did not know she could still turn back human. With a much slimmer, less muscular and much less hairy body, Greer is able to pull her arms out of her shackles. She reactivates her amulet with her hand and uses her strength from Tigra to rip off the shackle on her neck.
Alarms go off as she rips off her neck shackle, but she still hurries to free her companions. She frees them and Quasar tells the others that he can hear troops coming. Jack of Hearts tells him that they are ready this time. Thor and Tigra help a dizzy Moondragon stand up. She tells the two that she will be fine, but to be psychically silenced like that was to be blind or crippled.
The Ruul troops flood into the room and tell the Avengers to surrender or die. Thor laughs at the Ruul’s irreverence and tells the troops that they will stand against them. Starfox begins to support Thor, but Quasar interjects. Thor is surprised, but Quasar tells him that they need to hurry and warn Earth. He has never tried to quantum-jump within an atmosphere but, for the sake of the universe, he has to try. Quasar generates a quantum-bubble, which envelopes the heroes. When the light fades, they are gone.
The commander tells the troops to shift to worker form, so they can track the Avengers. A telepathic image of the Supreme Intelligence appears and he tells the troops not to worry. It does not matter if the heroes escaped. It is far too late for the Avengers, or any one else in that case, to do anything.
Back on Earth, the heroes have been pushed back to Sanford, Florida. Ego the Living Planet continues to expand and threatens to completely consume what may possibly be the last part of the United States! As townspeople flee for their lives, the mutant sorceress known to the world as the Scarlet Witch leads what may possibly the last effort to save the Earth.
As the Scarlet Witch uses her chaos magic on Ego, she tells her colleagues to keep on working together to hold him. Her companions are some of the most powerful mystics on the face of the planet. Agatha Harkness. Dakimh the sorcerer. Mechamage. Margali of the Winding Way. Khalid Inshallah. Jules St. Thomas. These fine sorcerers use their might to try to stop the growth of Ego, but even their great strength combined is strained to the breaking point! Wanda begins to wish that they were able to find Dr. Strange.
Wanda begins to get dizzy and realizes the Ego has merged with the Earth itself and is corrupting their power. As she collapses, Agatha calls out to her student. The now free Ego begins this expansion once again and the weakened mystics are right in his way.
Nearby, the Human Torch flies over to the rest of the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Bruce Banner and a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. The Torch tells Reed, who is building a large purple machine with Iron Man and Banner, that the “alakazam” squad has had it. Thing tells Reed that he, the Torch and Sue will cover the evacuation of the mystics. As the three leave, Iron Man curses to himself. He will never get used to magic, but even he was hoping that they mystics would succeed.
Iron Man fits in another piece into the giant construct and tells Reed and Bruce that Earth’s salvation is up to them. Reed takes off his goggles and agrees with Iron Man. He tells the two that they cannot waste any time. Reed thanks Bruce, who begins to cough, for coming considering his health problems. Bruce, still coughing, tells Reed that it is not a problem considering the situation. However, he is stuck. The physical apparatus is sound, but the bio-compression protocols elude him. If he had more time, he could figure out the process.
Suddenly, Gambit leaps over the S.H.I.E.L.D. guards and tells Reed that he needs to speak with him. The agents call Gambit an intruder and tell Reed that they will take care of them. Reed tells the guards to put their weapons down. Though his entrance was unconventional, Gambit is a friend. He then asks the X-Man what he has for them. “Perhaps nothing,” says Gambit, “but perhaps not.” He takes out a c.d. from his coat and tells Reed, Iron Man, and Bruce that he recently acquired this data-disk recently. He was told it contained information on the process likely used to compress and imprison Ego on Earth.
Quasar and the rest of the Avengers near the planet of Selandiar in the quantum-bubble. Quasar tells the team that this is as close as he can get them, because q-jumping into an atmosphere could get them stuck in a mountain. Starfox tells Quasar that it won’t matter, because the welcoming committee has found them. Sure enough, the Quantum-bubble is suddenly surrounded by a multitude of hostile crafts.
Shortly, in the great council chamber, Lilandra stands at her podium with Avios and Gladiator in the same chamber that was used to condemn Earth in the first place. The once black Judgment Gems hang ominously over the ground. In the speaker’s podium stand the Avengers, Earth’s last hope against the Maximum Security program. Photon speaks on behalf of the team and thanks Lilandra for agreeing to see them on short notice. However, they have grave news.
The ambassadors do not give Photon a chance to talk and begin to protest that a human has no voice in the council. Lilandra tells her fellow delegates that they must have order. She has granted the humans the right to be heard. She asks the delegates if they are afraid of what the Avengers have to say. Before anyone can say anything, Lilandra tells Photon to continue.
Photon thanks Lilandra and continues to explain to the delegates that they have uncovered the truth about the decision to quarantine Earth. Moondragon stops Photon and tells her that the delegates will not listen to mere words. She has a more direct method. Using her telepathy, Moondragon taps into the memories of the Avengers and then projects their story into the minds of the delegates.
The council learns of how the Supreme Intelligence gained the Forever Crystal and used it to evolve the Kree and how they gained the ability to personally evolve themselves. They learn how the Supreme Intelligence guided Ego out of the bio-verse he was trapped in and how he sent the planet onto a mad rampage. They learn how he sent the Kree, disguised as the Ruul, to gain power and to imprison Earth.
Even though the council learns the truth, many delegates call the Avengers liars. Thor is surprised that they do not believe. Moondragon rubs her aching head and tells Thor that they do not want to believe. However, they will force them if necessary.
Avios gains Lilandra’s attention and gives her a handheld monitor, for she has received a call. Lilandra takes the call and thanks Avios. She turns her attention to the councilors and tells them that they need to see what she is seeing. Lilandra transmits her feed to the main screen in the chamber and shows them all the fight occurring at the processing center outside Pluto. The delegates are horrified to see the humans loose and watch as the X-Men and Avengers win against the Ruul. In the foreground in the image are Professor Xavier and Cerise.
Lilandra tells the delegates to calm down and introduces Cerise to the assemblage. She explains that she sent Cerise to investigate the situation on Earth on her behalf. Lilandra tells Cerise that the council has learned that the Ruul may not be what they appear and asks the woman if there is validity to this statement. Cerise tells Lilandra that the Ruul are not what they appear and things on Earth have gone totally differently than what the council was told. Earth was meant as a prison, nothing more. Cerise then tells the delegates that she is going to send them an image of Earth’s present condition.
The delegates look on in complete and absolute horror to see that more than half of the planet has been terraformed into Ego! Xavier tells the delegates that they sent Ego compacted into a carrier being as a prisoner. However, the council was tricked. The true mastermind had no interest in making Earth a prison. He only wanted to convert it to Ego and then control him. The prisoners have told them the truth. Power-conduits have been placed around the globe.  They only serve to siphon power from Ego.
Suddenly, Xavier is cut off by a malicious laugh. An image of the Supreme Intelligence hands between Lilandra and the Avengers. He laughs and greets his once former colleagues in the council. He asks them if they have no greeting for one who used to stand in power among them and the one who will by their inevitable conqueror.
The Supreme Intelligence tells the delegates that they are fools. The Kree have neutralized Earth and will claim the power of Ego, making them the most powerful force in the civilized universe. Better yet, the Kree did it right under the nose of the council. Already, they have taken back Hala and scores of other former Kree worlds. Fleets have been launched that were built in secret. Soon, he will have his empire back. Also, now that the Kree are not longer hindered by genetics, they are free to fulfill their destiny. Everyone shall fall and the Kree will rule the universe. The Supreme Intelligence chuckles one more time and then his image vanishes.
The councilors sit in shock until one skinny green alien with large eyes speaks up and reminds the councilors that Ego already shattered their defenses and fleets. Now the Kree are coming at them at full strength. He asks the council what they are going to do. U.S.Agent comes to the monitor and tells “pop-eyes” that it is the council’s problem. The heroes could have helped them against the “worm heads,” but right now Earth is a little busy. The council tried to destroy their planet and now the heroes are going to save it. U.S.Agent tells Thor and the others that he is in charge of the Avengers for the duration of the crisis and orders them back to Earth immediately.
Thor tells Lilandra that U.S.Agent is brusque, but he cannot argue with him. Under different circumstances, they could have offered the council help, but their first duty is to Earth. They must go. Embarrassed, Lilandra tells Thor that they understand. As the Avengers turn to leave, Quasar tells Lilandra that since the imprisonment of Earth was the council’s fault, he would like to ask for a favor.
In Florida, the Fantastic Four, Gambit, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Silver Surfer and the mystics watch the three men continue to work on their construct. The Thing wonders why they need Iron Man at all, since it is Tony Stark who is the “big brain.” The Human Torch reminds Thing that Tony Stark can see everything Iron Man sees and hears. “Besides,” says Johnny,” look at him go…”
Banner gets up and tells everyone that they are done and are ready for a test. Iron Man tells everyone to stand back and turns on the construct. The machine sends out a wave of energy, which hits Ego. Suddenly, the Ego mass begins to shrivel and contract itself. Gambit cheers as Ego begins to compress itself. Reed tells the others that the data Gambit brought worked, but it is only temporarily. They need to leach Ego into a host for. Reed turns to the Surfer and tells him that he knows that the cosmic being has volunteered, but he must understand that the process could kill him. The Surfer tells Reed that he knows and that he is ready.
The Scarlet Witch suddenly notices a light in the sky and tells everyone to look. Ronan the Accuser appears above the heroes and tells them that he cannot permit them to tamper with his power source. Ronan explains that he has been in league with the Supreme Intelligence since the beginning. The whole time he was only pretending to be a lackey of the Shi’ar. With that said, he aims his hammer to the ground and teleports an entire Kree army to Earth!
Ronan is about to tell the heroes to surrender or die, but he is cut off by another flash of light behind him in the sky. As the light fades, Ronan finds all of Earth’s heroes who traveled to the processing center behind him and ready to fight. Beta-Ray Bill, too, has come, though the alien prisoners are still at the processing center. U.S.Agent tells Ronan that time is up and that the cavalry has arrived.
Quasar rubs his head and thinks to himself that he has never tried anything like that before. Using the council’s astrogation systems, the Jack of Heart’s computer mind, Moondragon’s telepathy and his Q-bands, he was able to make a double quantum-jump to pick up the others and come to Earth. However, the process has strained him.
Unimpressed, Ronan threatens to kill them all. U.S.Agent welcomes him to try. In the name of the Earth and the United States, he orders everyone to get Ronan. Namor, Thor, Beta-Ray Bill, Colossus, She-Hulk, Thing, Wonder Man, Hercules, Warbird and Goliath all go for Ronan, while the rest of Earth’s heroes collide with the Kree army.
Ronan tells the heroes that he has the power of Ego, which means he has more power than any god or the Supreme Intelligence himself. He blasts Thor away with his hammer and knocks Beta-Ray Bill, Hercules and Namor away. He then slams Wonder Man with his hammer and tells them that no one can stop him.
While U.S.Agent fights along side Spider-Man and Rogue, he thinks to himself that, once again, it comes down to force against force. Again, it is the ordinary folk who are caught in the middle and pray that the costumed heroes have what it takes. However, one day, they are going to realize that their future hangs on a thin thread. U.S.Agent just hopes that that day is not today.
The Thing, Human Torch, Invisible Woman and Scarlet Witch return to Reed, Iron Man, Banner and the Silver Surfer. The Human Torch tells the four men that Ronan is tossing everyone around and that they don’t have much time. Thing says that they could take him, but Reed tells him that he need them here.
The Surfer stands in the middle of a ring that stands up vertically. He straps his feet into the ring and holds onto the top with his hands. Reed tells the Surfer that he does not like the readings, but they have to give it a go. They begin the transfer of Ego into the Surfer, who begins to suppress a scream. Ego flips out and begins to violently shift its mass everywhere. He releases a group of people that he absorbed, but quickly takes them back in to him.
Ronan suddenly feels weaker. Rogue leads another charge against Ronan and Thor tells the heroes to fight until the threat is over. However, nearby, the Silver Surfer continues to scream and his hard skin begins to crack to the horror of Iron Man. The three scientists realize that the Surfer cannot contain Ego and they shut down the machine. The Surfer breaks free from the ring, but tells the men that they need to try again. He then falls to the ground, unconscious.
Nearby, Quasar fights some Kree warriors all the while thinking about how he has not been home in some time. He is overjoyed to be home and begins to notice the sweet air, the warm sun and the feeling of fighting for something he genuinely loves. Before he can think any further, he looks down and notices Reed and the others and wonders what is going on. Banner tells Reed that the Surfer is barely alive. The Surfer cannot contain Ego. Reed begins to say that they should have never have tried, but Iron Man tells him that they had not choice and he did volunteer. He then wonders where they are going to get another host form.
Quasar hears all this and realizes what the men are doing. He also realizes what they need. He takes one last look around his surrounding of the Earth and takes in everything that he missed since his long exile into space. He then flies to the three men and tells them that he is what they need. Quasar explains that the Surfer could not handle it, but the Quantum-power is more adaptive. He will take the Surfer’s place.
Reed is amazed and begins to tell Quasar about the risks. Quasar stops him and tells him that it will be way too easy to talk him out of it. Quasar is strapped into the ring and the ring is activated. The process is worse than with the Surfer and the smell of oily smoke floats in the air. Banner begins to hold his head and tells the others that he needs some air and desperately needs to stay calm. Quasar is hit by excruciating pain, but he only holds on tighter to the ring.
Ronan knocks Thor, Rogue, and Sunfire away and realizes that his power is being sapped again. He walks past the fallen heroes and notes that this time the drain feels smoother and more dangerous. He cannot let it continue. The Thing notices that Ronan is shrinking and also doesn’t look happy about it. Ronan tells Thing that he is hardly happy and charges at the heroes.
Iron Man, the Human Torch, the Thing and the Scarlet Witch charge and Ronan. The Thing tells him that they only way he can get to Quasar is to go through them and he is betting that the alien cannot. Ronan easily plows through the four and tells them that he is not helpless. Even the tiniest portion of Ego’s power is more than enough to defeat them.
Reed wraps around Ronan, but Ronan simply sends waves of energy through him. Bruce begins to transform into the Hulk and warns Ronan to back off or suffer the consequences. Ronan laughs at the idea and blasts Banner unconscious before he can complete his transformation. He then aims his hammer at Quasar and prepares to kill him, which will lead Ronan to have more power to rule than the Supreme Intelligence.
From behind, U.S.Agent hits Ronan in the back with his energy baton and wounds the alien. He tells Ronan that he still has to deal with him. Ronan tells U.S.Agent that he is not match for him. U.S.Agent does not care and uppercuts Ronan with his shield. He tells Ronan that he may not be as powerful as the others, but Ronan is getting to Quasar over his dead body!
Ronan disagrees and tells U.S.Agent that he will get to Quasar with no concern for the agent at all. He then grabs U.S.Agent by the arm, but the man swings around Ronan and smashes his shield into Ronan’s back. Ronan is irked now and tells U.S.Agent that if he wants the condition to be over his dead body, then he will get his wish. He then blasts U.S.Agent point blank with the energy in his hammer.
To Ronan’s dismay, U.S.Agent is not dead. U.S.Agent is on his knees in front of Europe almost completely naked except for a few rags on his body from his former uniform. He taunts Ronan and tells him that he must be getting weaker, because he is still in his way. Ronan kicks him and tells U.S.Agent that he is courageous. Ronan tells U.S.Agent that there are only a few seconds left and then sends a blast towards Quasar, but it is blocked. Shocked, Ronan asks how his attack could be deflected. Disappointed that Ronan did not figure it out, the Invisible Woman comes over and reminds him that her specialty is invisible force fields. Sue then tells Ronan that those “few seconds” are up.
There is a rush of air and a crack of sound in the sky. Across the world, Ego blackens and shrivels in seconds. He turns into a dust. Quasar moans a moan that has never come from a human and then, just as suddenly as it began, it is over. Quasar falls free of the ring and onto the ground.
Thor, Captain America, Warbird and Colossus come up behind Ronan and Thor tells the man that it is over. Ronan tells them that he will just reverse the process, but Colossus tells him that they will not allow him too. Sue helps U.S.Agent up, but he goes towards Ronan and tells Colossus that Ronan is his. Ronan laughs at U.S.Agent and tells him that he amuses him to the end. U.S.Agent tells Ronan that this will be a riot then and tells him that he is under arrest. He then punches the Kree in the face. Ronan hits the ground, unconscious. U.S.Agent looks out to the field of unconscious heroes and aliens and tells everyone that it is over.
Soon, Goliath and Reed aid Quasar, who asks if the process worked. Reed confirms this, but Quasar tells him that he can “feel” the Ego-essence in him. Quasar tells them that he better go, because he cannot risk letting Ego break loose again. He also cannot let him out is space. That means he is an exile again. Reed promises Quasar that they will work out a solution. Goliath tells him that he will be free in no time. Quasar looks into the sky and says, “Yeah…I guess.” However, he knows that Reed and Goliath are just saying that to make him feel better. With that, Quasar flies off to space.
A week later, the last of the alien prisoners are rounded up and extradited. Most of the humans absorbed are shaken and traumatized, but alive. The nightmares will fade. Earth has survived and is rebuilding.
As Shi’ar troops load up the aliens, Lilandra speaks to Cerise via monitor. She tells Cerise that he council is embarrassed by their gullibility and is now preoccupied with the Kree. It will be some time before any one brings up the topic of Earth again. However, the war is going badly and is fiercer than she expected. Without Ego they are still a formidable foe and the council needs all its strength, including Cerise. Cerise tells Lilandra that she will leave within a day-cycle. Cerise looks at Xavier and Cadre K and asks Lilandra if she wants to speak to anyone else before the end of the transmission. Lilandra tells Cerise that she did what she had to do, but she is embarrassed as well. It will have to wait for another time.
A recuperated Z’cann hugs the Professor and wishes he was coming with them. Xavier tells her that he will miss her too, but his place is on Earth for now. They must carry on the fight without him. They do not need him. Fiz tells him that maybe they don’t, but he will always be with them in spirit. Fiz thanks him for sharing his dream as Cadre K boards their ship and take off.
Nearby, the Avengers meet with U.S.Agent, Agent Magruder and Agent Mowat. Captain America tells him that he kept everyone together, focused and he led well. He did a good job and, on behalf of the Avengers, he is thanking him. Cap offers his hand for a shake and U.S.Agent, who has a broken arm, is about to let go of his shame and anger, but he suddenly tells Cap that he does not need his approval nor does he want it.
U.S.Agent tells him that Maximum Security should never have happened. He does not want to be apart of their costume party. They endanger everyone by making cosmic enemies with their unsupervised dilettante games. He cares about the little guy. They are the people who shouldn’t have their lives interrupted and threatened by all the super-violence without warning.
U.S.Agent, Mowat, and Magruder walk away and U.S.Agent tells the Avengers to keep their congratulations. He is just going to do what he is doing, which is to make sure the “super-crooks” are subject to the same laws as everyone else. He is going to make sure that they and the Avengers are nothing special. “NOTHING AT ALL!” he screams.
U.S.Agent tells Mowat and Magruder to find the Black Mariah and to get out of there. Mowat congratulates U.S.Agent for saying what he did to the Avengers. He smiles and tells U.S.Agent that the Avengers are a bunch of “self-appointed, self satisfied yahoos…” Angrily, U.S.Agent grabs Mowat by the collar and shoves him against a jet. He tells the man that he never wants to hear that kind of talk about the Avengers ever again.
U.S.Agent drops Mowat onto the ground and leaves. Magruder goes to Mowat, who asks her what that was all about. Magruder tells him that she does not know and it is probably better not to ask.


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

[Assistant]
Targets
Kitty Pryde can’t catch a break. She has left the X-Men to lead a normal life at the University of Chicago, but now she and her fellow students in Professor Benes’ Advanced Physics Tutorial are having their faces plastered across the website of the anti-mutant group “Purity”. Purity claims that a mutant has infiltrated the class and considering that they are engaged in possibly revolutionary applications of Quantum Physics, there’s no telling what a mutie might do with that knowledge. Kitty’s seething, but there isn’t anything she can do about it, and besides they’re right. There IS a mutant in the class, after all.
Returning from her night job at Dylan Maguire’s bar, she gets ready for her first appointment with her therapist Maureen Lyzinski. Since she lost her temper some time ago and beat up Jeff Holloway and several other Purity members, she is now on full probation and has to undergo mandatory counseling if she wants to stay at college. Doesn’t mean she has to be cooperative though. Therefore she just sits across Maureen for an entire hour in stony-faced silence. She can’t help noticing the snapshots in Maureen’s office though, one of them showing a younger Maureen as the sole woman in a fighting unit – presumably in Vietnam – and another snapshot showing a reunion of the former soldiers. With the hour up, Maureen asks if she’ll see Kitty on Friday. Does she have a choice, Kitty snaps. Everybody has choices, the older woman calmly replies, and has to live with their consequences.
Taking another look at the pictures, Kitty states that her father joined the Marines and went to Vietnam. He lied about his age when he enlisted. That was HIS choice. Watching the girl leave, Maureen wonders what Kitty’s war was. She calls Dean Maguire, telling him she’ll do her best to help Kitty, but she hopes she isn’t too late. Riding back to College Kitty breaks down and cries. She wants her father and feels guilty about his death. She recalls Maureen mentioning choices - Kitty’s choice brought her to this place and she’s determined to stay.
Later at night, she’s back at her job tending bar at Dylan Maguire’s “Belles of Hell” and having fun. Distracted, she takes a young Asian woman’s order, until she gets a look at her, recognizing her as another former student at Xavier’s school – the former New Mutant Karma AKA Xi’An Coy Manh. The two young women hug and Kitty introduces Shan to her boss Dylan as an old friend. Dylan tells Kitty to take a break and catch up with Shan. Shan makes a flattering remark about Dylan and Kitty is taken aback. Isn’t Shan gay, she doesn’t outright state, but imply. She can still admire the view, Shan jokes, asking in turn about Kitty’s relationship prospects. Kitty replies, she’s sworn off relationships and then asks, how Shan found her.
Shan explains that she’s working in the university library while going for her degree as a librarian and possibly language teacher. She ran across Kitty’s name and face on the Purity website, a thought that sobers them both up. Kitty inquires after Shan’s younger sibling, Leong and Nga.
They’re fine, Shan replies, they have an apartment now and invites Kitty over for dinner. Kitty’s reluctant, she has to work after all, but Dylan cuts her loose. As Shan and Kitty enter the modest apartment with groceries, her younger siblings run away and hide, when they see their guest. Shan chides them, but explains to Kitty, that they’ve been through a lot and have to rediscover what’s normal.
After dinner, Shan prays with her sibling and tucks them in, before she and Kitty share a few beers on the roof. Kitty wonders why Shan isn’t cold, and Shan shows her that she’s wearing her old New Mutants uniform under her clothes. The costume works as an environment suit and – if need be – as body armor. Shan muses that she misses the superhero life. Everything feels so mundane now. Fine with Kitty though. That’s the kind of life she wants. Changing the subject, Shan enquires after Kitty’s parents and Kitty tells her that her father perished when Cassandra Nova’s Sentinels destroyed Genosha. There are people who want them dead, she says soberly and they won’t stop until they succeed.
Meanwhile at Lake Huron, the Canadian Coast Guard ship Rockhampton hails a mysterious freighter that gives no sign of having heard. Guard members board the freighter from a helicopter. As they enter the deck, they see a mysterious light. The helicopter is suddenly shot down, the freighter turns and destroys the Rockhampton. The freighter then reports to the Guard on Land, pretending to be the Rockhampton and claiming all is well.
Back in Chicago, near Hyde Park, another mutant has Genosha on his mind. It’s Shola Inkosi, a young foreign exchange student from Genosha. He finds himself in a legal no-man’s land. As Genosha was considered a terrorist state when Magneto started threatening the world again, Shola had his student visa revoked and was supposed to be deported to Genosha. But thanks to Cassandra Nova, Genosha no longer exists. He has fallen asleep, dreaming once again about Genosha. He finds himself trapped in a memory, how he psychically was in contact with Wilhelmina – a girl in Emma Frost’s telepathy class, when the Sentinels appeared and started destroying everything. Waking up, he’s determined not to fall asleep again. He runs to the next coffee shop and gets accosted by some gang members threatening him with a gun. Shola’s eyes start to glow and the gun explodes into its parts as do several cars around them. Shola calmly enters the café and sips his coffee, while the bystanders wonder what the hell just happened.
In an off-campus dorm Jeff Holloway, Tom More and Alice, three members of Purity, are meeting. Jeff is bringing he latest anti-mutant flyers with him. In the meantime Tom has hacked into the physics lab network – Benes’ class has scheduled a big test for that evening. Tom states that he wished Benes would change his mind. He and his class are playing with primal forces – you can’t trust a mutie with that kind of knowledge. Jeff grimly calls Benes a race traitor – him and his pet student Kitty Pryde. Tom points out, that Jeff is just angry because she decked him and six of his friends. This isn’t personal, he points out to the insulted Jeff, but a sacred mission. If Kitty’s human, they’re fighting for her sake as well. He asks his girlfriend Alice whether they ever wonder if the mutie alert is wrong. Alice kisses him and tells him no. Those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear after all. Calmed, Tom leaves and asks the other two just to observe, but not to actually play with the command protocols, which, once he’s gone, is exactly what the two intend to do, the better to flush out the mutie.
Having no idea what’s in store for them the Physics class is getting ready for the big test: the goal is to identify and possibly manipulate the fundamental building blocks of creation. Kitty’s the resident “mechanic” in charge of the more technical aspects. While she’s aligning the lasers, Georges shows her the T-shirts the class made – showing all their snapshots from the purity site with bullseyes around them on the back and a “No Purity sign” on front. Kitty tells the others she can’t afford a fight, seeing as how she’s on probation. The others discuss the “mutant alarm”. Some of them want to crash the site with a virus, others are just plain scared, until Benes breaks it up and asks them to focus on the matter at hand. Just as they are starting the test Kitty notices something. She asks them to abort – the system is running on full power and can’t be stopped, though. The other students are running away – Benes is paralyzed. Kitty jumps at him, trying to get him out of harm’s way as around them everything goes to hell.


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[Assistant]
Runaway
At the Astrophysics at Bessemer field Station lab, Kitty Pryde and her classmates stare incredulously at the mess in front of them – a runaway accident that’s about to destroy a year’s work and possibly kill them all. As none of their countermeasures seem to work, the program is running out of control. When the laser starts to fire wildly, the disaster can be seen from outside. Shan Coy Manh, Kitty’s friend and fellow mutant, currently on a bus, notices and draws the conclusion that Kitty is probably be involved. Elsewhere, Purity member Tom More notices as well, as do the other group members Jeffrey and Alice, who are responsible for this disaster in the making. Jeffrey panics while Alice stays unnaturally calm. As far as she’s concerned, they just struck a blow for the survival of the human species.
Back at the lab the students realize that a virus has corrupted their system – it needs to be shut down manually. Professor Benes intends to do the job. He orders his students out into the getaway tunnel after which he’ll follow. Surprisingly, Kitty knocks him out and explains to the others that she knows the grid as well as he does and stands a better chance of surviving. She asks the others to get to the mainline circuit breakers and kill the power from the outside. The others wish her luck and leave.
Once they’re gone, she uses her mutant power to phase into the system, where an explosion passes harmlessly through her. Unfortunately, the heat still gets to her, so she has to hurry. She uses a crowbar to break the electrical connection and succeeds, though she is left wondering, whether the radiation will cause her health problems in the long run, as she had to be solid to hold the crowbar. As she stumbles into the getaway tunnel, she is found by volunteer helpers Tom More and Shan.
Tom quickly examines Kitty and the three of them go looking for the other students. Kitty’s interested in Tom and Shan tells her that he used to be a volunteer fire fighter in his hometown and is now a paramedic. Tom explains that the fire department can’t get their equipment through the blocked roads. They’ll have to hurry, the building’s ready to collapse. As they debate what to do, they hear the other students near them. None of them seems to be fit enough to manage the rest of the way, but then Shan possesses them and mentally forces them to run to towards the exit. Then, however, the building begins to collapse.
Strangely, though none of the debris hits them as though they were protected by a forcefield bubble. Some of the rubble moves aside and before them stands Shola Inkosi, who used his mutant powers to move the debris away. Kitty moves towards Shola and wants to thank him, but Tom holds her back. He tells her that “it” is a mutant, a Genoshan, a monster. Kitty angrily debates the point with him and finally phases her arm straight through him. She’s a mutant, she calmly tells him. Does that make her a monster?
Tom silently turns around and walks away. Kitty introduces herself to Shola. He tells her that he opened the roads and took care of the fire and then leaves over Kitty´s protests. While the others are taken care of, Kitty sullenly wonders whether she should follow his example and split. She’s angry that Tom turned out to be such a jerk. She and Shan are joined by the police who’d like a word with her. Kitty asks to be excused though, as she has an appointment with her psychiatrist the first thing in the morning.
The next morning in her office, Maureen asks Kitty what she thinks about her father’s choice to go to Vietnam underage. It is the only thing Kitty mentioned during last session. Kitty, clearly uncomfortable about the subject, answers that she only brought the subject up because she saw Maureen’s war picture and made a connection. She finally admits that she is bothered, because her father kept such an important part of his life secret from his family and what worries her as well is her fear that she has inherited that trait. When Maureen points out that everybody keeps secrets, Kitty retorts that her father’s secret got him and her mother into a witness protection program.
She momentarily drifts off and then insists that he was a good man. She still clearly blames herself for the deterioration of her parents’ marriage. When Kitty refuses to add anything more, Maureen points out that she is still keeping secrets and is apparently not interested in changing that status quo.
Later at the University Heights Precinct of the Chicago Police department, Kitty is questioned by Detectives Ramos and Lukaszh over the events at Bessemer Station. Detective Lukaszh clearly carries a grudge. He tells Kitty that his cousin lost his house when her father’s family-owned bank went bankrupt. Kitty refuses to let him goad her though and remains polite.
Regarding the incident, she explains that she has no clue what went wrong. There were no hardware problems, then another student yelled something about a virus and everything crashed.
Lukaszh remarks that it’s awfully convenient that a mutant would pop out of nowhere. Kitty retorts, since there were lots of volunteers, why shouldn’t one be a mutant? The detectives wonder why she split off from the others and why she punched her professor. She explains that she was in better shape and knew the systems better, so she had the best chance of surviving. When Lukaszh ironically states that it sounds as though she were a hero, she retorts sarcastically if that were the case, she wouldn’t be here. The detective answers that all her fellow students are being questioned as well.
Angrily, Kitty asks whether they think the students are responsible for this. She explains that the anti-mutant group Purity made them targets and somebody decided to act on it. Or the class did it to discredit Purity, Lukaszh replies. Ramos wonders why Purity would fixate on this class and finally asks Kitty point-blank, whether she is a mutant. Kitty saves herself by sarcastically answering, “Hell, yes. Isn´t everyone?”
Outside, her classmates are waiting and ask her how it went. They ask her, she’s a mutant, right? As Kitty is dumbfounded, they explain that they were all asked that question and they all gave the same answer Kitty did.
Elsewhere, the mysterious freighter, Amazon Belle, is approaching the Mackinac Straits, which connects Lake Huron with Lake Michigan. Someone or something on the freighter states that they have registered a mutant bioform in Chicago and that they will destroy it.


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[Assistant]
Busted
Returning to her apartment, Kitty finds that she has been presented with a search warrant, issued by the federal magistrate for the Homeland Anti-Terrorist Task-Force. FBI agents are busily searching through her flat and refuse to allow her entrance.
Kitty is first dumbfounded, then furious - how dare they? She protests that she’s already answered their questions. That was the Chicago PD, the agents corrects her. They are the FBI and have primary jurisdiction in this case. Kitty complains that she has a doctor’s appointment and has to attend. Are clean clothes and a shower too much to ask? A bureaucratic-looking agent joins them and asks if there is a problem. What’s their problem, Kitty shoots back. She’s helped to save lives at Bessemer Station. Now she’s being treated like a criminal instead of a victim. The second agent coolly explains that the answers she and her classmates gave during the interrogation were less than satisfactory.
Watching the agents rummaging through her belongings, Kitty thinks of the lyrics to “My Country ‘tis of Thee,” which stand in ironic contrast to what she is experiencing and is on the verge of tears. The first agent brutally asks her, why is she so upset? She should be used to this from the time they took down her father. Kitty runs away, angrily thinking to herself that, while her dad made his share of mistakes, he died the way he lived – a hero.
The agents watch her leave and inform surveillance to keep an eye on her. The other agent, Angela, is unsure about this. There’s no evidence leading to her, after all, but she does as she’s told. Entering a subway train, Kitty is very much aware of being tailed. Quickly, she phases herself into place while the train runs through her at full speed. It happens so quickly, nobody notices. Then, she pays a visit to her lawyer – an old friend of the X-Men’s: Jeryn Hogart.
Later that morning, she once more attends her psychiatrist, Dr. Maureen Lyszinski.
Maureen starts where they left off last session, namely with Kitty’s claim that it was her job to “fix things,” especially pertaining to her parents’ failing marriage. Why does she blame herself? Because she’s responsible, Kitty replies automatically. But she was a child back then. The adults were responsible, not her, Maureen points out. Kitty angrily shouts that she doesn’t understand. Then she should explain, Maureen demands or would she rather run? Kitty angrily shouts at her to leave her alone. What she wants, doesn’t matter anyway.
Later, she grumpily accuses Maureen of all this being her fault. She didn’t start the fight on campus that led to Kitty having to attend mandatory counselling, Maureen replies. The “Nazi,” Jeff Holloway, jumped right into her face with his Purity crap, Kitty defends herself. Why didn’t she ignore him, Maureen demands. Kitty shoots back, asking whether she’s ever read their website. Those people celebrate the annihilation of an entire country.
More fuel for Kitty’s rage, Maureen states. Leaving, Kitty tells her that she simply doesn’t understand. When Maureen offers her help, Kitty exclaims that she should be alone and leaves.
In the meantime, at the University Heights precinct, Detectives Ramos and Lukaszh are interrogating Tom More (and are giving him a lot less grief than Kitty and her classmates). After the interview, they refer to him as a “stand-up guy.” Lukaszh asks his colleague what he thinks of the feds giving Kitty grief. His colleague tells him to leave well enough alone –they’ll make this case on their own.
Entering his dorm, Tom is in for a surprise: his girlfriend, Alice, awaits him in a slinky nightie, with champagne – she’s clearly in a romantic mood. After the “celebration,” Tom asks about the occasion. Their plans succeeded, Alice explains while getting dressed. They flushed out the mutie in Benes’ class and have photos of him.
Tom realizes that Alice and Jeff were able to manipulate the protocols, because he’d hacked into their computers. The students could have all died! “Collateral damage,” Alice shrugs this possibility off. Every war has casualties. Tom angrily wants to call the police, but Alice calmly points out that he was the one to hack into the physics network and create the virus. No trace leads to her – every trace leads to him. As she leaves, she tells Tom he’d better decide whether he wants to be among the righteous or be buried with the species traitors. Tom stays behind, finally realizing what he has caused.
At the Belles of Hell, Kitty is pulling a double shift. She’s not in the mood for school and she can’t go home, obviously. Besides, working bar takes her mind off her troubles. More trouble is coming, however, as Shan and her younger siblings enter the bar. Their home too was taken apart by federal agents after she gave her statement to the police. As a result, her landlord evicted her and she hasn’t got the money to sue him.
Kitty offers that they move in with her, once her lawyer succeeds with an injunction, so that she can return to her flat. This night, she had planned to stay in the bar. Dylan, Kitty’s boss and landlord, interjects, offering them a place to stay. There’s another empty apartment in his building. He’ll rent it to them, if they do the necessary work on the place.
Taking a walk outside with the sleeping kids in their arms, Kitty and Shan discuss how much Dylan knows about them. Kitty asks Shan to trust him – he’s a good guy. Shan admits that these days she’s finding it hard to trust anyone. It’s like Xavier’s dream of coexistence has been forgotten. She wonders if her family wouldn’t be safer back at the X-Mansion. Kitty replies that, as a Jew, she’s not interested in living in a ghetto, even in one that’s been erected for their own protection. Besides, if someone can destroy a whole island of mutants like Genosha, a mansion of mutants like Xavier’s place can be destroyed as well. Kitty wants to be on the outside, be her own person, and build her own life. Nevertheless, they should look after their own. She wants to see how’s Shola’s doing after saving their lives and suggests that they look for him after settling Shan and the kids in.
Some time later, the two girls have left the kids with Dylan as a babysitter and are now rifling through Shola’s apartment - or what’s let of it. The place is a mess, completely torn apart. They see a picture of Shola after his high school graduation, framed by his proud parents – parents who must have died when Genosha was destroyed, they realize.
Lights go on outside and someone throws a Molotov Cocktail through the window. The masked attackers outside have no compunctions about shooting at the building, even though there are people in the apartment above Shola’s as well. Shan and Kitty jump outside the burning building. In their arms, they have the woman and child that lived in the other apartment. Kitty angrily asks the attackers what their problem is – this was someone’s home! “Live with muties – die with muties,” one of the attackers replies and intends to shoot Kitty, but Shan possesses him and the others first.
Unfortunately, she doesn’t notice that one of the fanatics hand goes slack and he drops a can of pepper spray. Kitty and Shan are momentarily distracted, as they catch their breath. The fanatics gather their wits and one of them intends to shoot Kitty. Help comes from an unexpected quarter as, suddenly, Tom More jumps at the gunman and, at the same time, disables another one with a swift kick. Tom bravely struggles, although he’s clearly outnumbered and outmatched. As one of the fanatics intends to shoot the “race traitor,” his rifle is suddenly disassembled. The same thing happens to their car. The telekinetic Shola has returned and he’s mad as hell.
Frightened, the Purity members decide that discretion is the better part of valor, but they cannot flee - Shola telekinetically catches them and presses them against the wall of the destroyed building. Kitty interferes and tells him, he’s won. He should be better than they. After what they were about to do? Shola retorts angrily. They’ll be safer if the Purity members are dead. Kitty reminds him that they have laws for that. Shola has no illusions – they’ll keep on trying to kill mutants, unless they get killed first. Kitty assures them that this way they’ll win. Shoal eventually listens to Kitty’s words and doesn’t kill them. The police arrive and Shola’s upstairs neighbors give statements, indicting the Purity members – they’ll have to face charges of arson and attempted murder.
Kitty, Shan, Shola and Tom stay behind. Kitty gives Tom the first degree. What was he doing here? Tom explains that, after the incident at Bessemer station, the Purity website outed Shola as a mutant. He was afraid something would happen. While Shan comforts Shola, Kitty remarks that, if it hadn’t been for Tom and Shola, Shan and Kitty would have been killed. Tom admits that he felt he had to make amends. Kitty grabs his hand and tells him that her friend has to move. Would he like to help? At the same time, she figures that seeing something like that, a decent guy doing the right thing, gives her cause enough to hope.
In the meantime, on Lake Michigan, the freighter Amazon Belle has almost reached Chicago. Its mysterious passengers scan several mutant targets and intend to follow their prime directive –find them and destroy them.


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Prime Suspect!
Joey Casco and Maria Bonnaventura, two students in their late teens, have come to Chicago's warehouse district, searching for a waterfront rave. Instead, they now find themselves running for their lives from the creatures aboard the freighter, Amazon Belle. Maria stumbles over her impractical heels and finds that her ankle is too injured for her to stand up. Joey hesitates, but can't bring himself to desert his girlfriend. Floodlights coming from the freighter blind them and they realize that can expect no mercy. They tell each other "I love you" and Joey asks Maria to close her eyes.
A couple of days later, Tom More finds a flyer, which announces the two of them as missing, while he enters the apartment building where Kitty and Shan live. Kitty has just gotten her apartment back from the FBI after her lawyer's injunction succeeded. Unfortunately, the place is a mess and someone has tactfully sprayed obscene anti-mutant slogans on the door of her apartment. Inside, Tom finds Kitty, Shan and Shola, who are helping and is introduced to her landlord Dylan Maguire.
Dylan and Kitty head outside and Kitty shows him a futuristic gadget - "a leftover from her other life," Kitty calls it. The device displays a hologram of a boy spraying the obscenities on her door and Dylan is rather surprised that Kitty has security cameras in his building. He identifies the kid as Noel Penrose from apartment 3D, good people and a good kid, he insists. Kitty doesn't buy it. He'll talk to the boy's folks. Something like that won't happen again, he promises. Tom joins them - Shola told him to repaint the doorway. He asked him why he couldn't just use his powers to zap the paint away but according to Shola there are no easy solutions. Shola interrupts Tom and tells him if he wants to see something "zapped" he can either keep babbling or meet him tomorrow for a demonstration.
Elsewhere, the creatures from the Amazon Belle are scanning for mutant contacts and believe to have found them - in a group of mobsters. The men hear the dogs outside barking like crazy. When they check, they only find their bloody corpses. As they turn around, they see something terrible.
The next morning, Kitty has another session at her psychiatrist's. Turning the tables, Kitty asks Maureen what it was like for her in the Vietnam War. Maureen at first points out that she is then one who should ask questions but finally gives in and tells her of her experiences as a trauma nurse. She did two full tours. But when she came home, she found she could no longer work in that job, so she went back to school and became a psychiatrist. She confides that, during the war, she could never put names to faces - she just wanted to be like a mechanic operating on a machine. But now, whenever she visits the Wall in Washington and finds the name of a patient, she remembers their faces. She's never told this to anyone. Instead of taking a cue from her, Kitty gets up and intends to leave. Maureen finally gets angry: she opened up to her but Kitty refuses to reciprocate. She assures her once more that she isn't her enemy. But she can't be her friend either, Kitty shoots back and leaves.
(Alice Tremaine's apartment)
Tom, carrying red roses, rings at her door. Alice welcomes him coolly until he apologizes. She hugs him and assures him of her love. But why did he spend the other day hanging out with muties, she wants to know. Where do his loyalties lie? With Purity of course, he insists. The best way to destroy these monsters is from within. She kisses him passionately to make him forget about the "skinny, mutie-loving slut" and orders him to bring regular reports.
Outside, in the parking lot, Tom wonders just what the hell he is doing. He isn't even sure what he believes anymore. As he enters his car, he finds that Shola has already let himself in, They had a date, remember? He asks Tom to drive - as he can't.
They end up at a condemned quarry. Tom wants to know more about his powers. Shola demonstrates how he can manipulate objects with his mind by levitating a granite slab over their heads and then turning it into dust. Tom, now covered with granite dust, is pissed. Shola, however, is not finished with his demonstration. He simply pulls the dirt off Tom and the car, fuses it into a spearhead hard enough to break through a concrete slab and then returns it to Tom turning it back into loose dust particles at the very last moment. Not easy, he admits. He's better at destruction and gets more powerful the time. Is that a threat, Tom wonders.
Why should it be, Shola replies. They're friends after all, right?
At Shan's new apartment, which is in the same apartment building Kitty lives in, Kitty tells Shan's younger siblings a tall tale about how she and Shan joined the X-Teams while Shan is trying to study. The kids are zoned out and Kitty wants to tuck them in but suddenly they panic - they are afraid of someone trying to kill them and ask the two elder girls to stay with them. Kitty and Shan calm them: they're safe here in their home in Chicago and anyway the two of them are going to be in the kitchen near them.
In the kitchen, Shan admits she feels guilty for lying. There are monsters. Take for example all the people disappearing from the docks or the recent mob hits. Kitty agrees. They can't really protect the kids but at least let them have their illusions. And what of their illusions, Shan wonders. Like the illusion there's a place for mutants besides the grave? Life seems so out of control for them and just consists of fighting. Things aren't that bad, Kitty disagrees. At least Dylan Maguire's proving to be a decent guy. Probably a super-villain in disguise, Shan snorts.
Suddenly, the kids hysterically shout for them. They cry that there was a monster at the window looking in. Shan looks outside and finds nothing. They're on the fifth floor. How could anything have been at the window? Kitty wants to make sure and takes out her holographic gadget - she not only has the hallways, but the entire building under surveillance. The holo-projector shows them a Sentinel. It knows it's been spotted Kitty realizes and takes a baseball bat. They have to find it before it gets away and brings reinforcements. The girls ask Dylan to baby-sit the kids and, since she can't use her psychic powers on a robot, Shan takes along a gun. It's better than nothing, though she'd have preferred reinforcements, she admits.
Suddenly, something fires at Kitty. Shan knocks her aside and reciprocates with fire of her own, while Kitty phases them backwards through the wall. Kitty finds that she is bleeding from some minor wounds, even though she was intangible the whole time. Shan wonders why the Sentinel is so small. Kitty replies she's read about that version recently - and they hunt in packs. As Shan worries about the kids, Kitty calms her: they're not mutants. And if there were more than one Sentinel here, they'd already be dead.
The Sentinel chooses that moment to attack them. Shan once more fires but the creature develops thin tentacles that first take away Shan's weapon and then grab her arm, dragging her with it - it is adapting. The creature pushes Shan against a wall and intends to kill her with her own gun. At that moment, Kitty jumps at it from behind and phases off its head., effectively destroying it. Looking at the creature Kitty wonders what it is doing here in Chicago - the X-Men fought them in the Amazon.
At the docks, on the freighter, Amazon Belle, the other Sentinels have noticed that the reconnaissance unit's signal is lost. They conclude that the unit has fallen to hostile action - presumably by class-1 mutants. Therefore, they will initiate an immediate "search & destroy? mission".


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Bad Moon Rising
Kitty tosses what’s left of the Prime Sentinel into the garbage, convinced the fight is over. As the girls get ready to leave, Shan complains that it will never be over for mutants. Besides, Kitty said the creature was only a scout. She’d prefer to take her younger siblings somewhere safe before the rest of the Sentinels come for them.
For now, though, they still have the scout to worry about, as the creature adapts, rebuilding itself with any piece of junk around it. The scout grabs Shan’s gun and then comes for the girls again. Kitty orders Shan out – her power is no good against a robot. Shan refuses and collapses a scaffold, while the creature grabs for Kitty. Shadowcat phases through both the falling scaffold and the Sentinel causing damage to its sensors in the process. The girls use the time to run up the stairs of an abandoned warehouse. Kitty figures the Sentinel will follow – it will need a high point to transmit to the rest of its pack, without the warehouses causing interference. The Sentinel bursts through the wall and gives chase.
The girls barricade themselves in the attic and Kitty figures that the Sentinel isn’t just self-repairing, it is actually improving itself, adapting. She again asks Shan to leave. She has a family who needs her. Shan doesn’t let Kitty finish her sentence and grabs her hand: they are in this together, she states. They have to stick together to make a better world. As the girls are on the lookout, Kitty explains that the Sentinel is a smaller version of the Mega-Sentinel that wiped out Genosha and murdered 16 million mutants, as well as Kitty’s father. If they’re here… she trails off. Shan realizes her meaning. Does that mean Chicago’s next?
The creature burst through the floor, going for Kitty first whom it considers the primary threat. Kitty stays solid long enough to push Shan out of the way; enough time for the Sentinel to strike her. Shan jumps at it and hits it with the iron pipe she took from the scaffolding. The creature isn’t fazed and, instead, shoots barbed tentacles at her, straight through her shoulders, trapping her. Even while it intends to kill the immobilized Shan with its taser, Kitty phases her out of harm’s way, as well as phasing the joist that supports the roof along with them The building collapses around the phased girls and the robot.
The girls become solid again on top of the ruins. As Shan laughs with relief, Kitty gazes into her eyes and for a moment forgets the trouble they’re still in. The Sentinel attacks from below and chokes Shan, also managing to grab Kitty, despite being phased. Suddenly, the creature is violently yanked into the air and then smashed into the ground again, courtesy of Shola Inkosi’s telekinesis. The cavalry has arrived.
Shola explains that Shan’s siblings told him and Tom More what was going on and pointed them in the right direction. Even as Tom marvels at what Shola did to the Sentinel, it recovers and lunges for Shola and Kitty. Shola quickly traps it in a telekinetic force-bubble. Tom helps Shan up and asks her whether they do this sort of thing all the time. Bitterly, she replies that “this sort of thing” was designed by humans to kill mutants, so, yes, they do it all the time. Kitty asks Shola to compress the sphere until the Sentinel within disintegrates. She urges him that creatures like that one murdered his whole family: this is his chance to let his anger go. Shola succeeds and Kitty tells the others that they won’t have much time before the rest of the pack comes looking for their scout, as indeed they are already doing.
The next morning, Kitty is at another session with her psychiatrist, Maureen Lyszinski. Kitty brushes her shrink off again, as Maureen wants to know what she meant last session when she talked about “risk.” Maureen pointedly reminds her that it was her choice to accept therapy. Either she works with her or leaves. Kitty replies that the therapy is mandatory for her, if she doesn’t want to get expelled. With her grades she would be accepted at any school, Maureen replies. Kitty wants to stay though and doesn’t give a straight answer when Maureen asks why she is so afraid. Kitty evades her question by stating that she thought Maureen considered her angry, not scared. Maureen replies that both emotions feed each other and they all come from shame.
After giving her a rude brush-off, Kitty sarcastically states that as a Jew she should be used to being hated. Angered at Maureen’s neutral reply, she snarls that she was condemned at birth. Her friends and her father got killed just for existing. She doesn’t want to be different, she cries, she just wants to be herself. Why can’t people leave it at that? How is she supposed to build a life and a family in the face of that? Getting more and more worked up, Kitty asks in tears if the doctor really wants to know what she feels? She phases straight through the woman and walks to the door, admitting that she is a mutant and that there will be no end to her war.
Later, at Shan’s apartment, while the twins sit at the window, armed with a baseball bat, Kitty, Shan and Shola discuss last night’s events. Kitty complains that they couldn’t raise any X-Men and the authorities, even if they believed them, couldn’t do much. She marvels at the Sentinel’s design, calling it a “bumblebee,” meaning, scientifically speaking, it’s impossible, yet it works. Ironically, it’s a Sentinel capable of evolution; a mutant, if you will.
They are interrupted as someone knocks at the door. It’s several of Kitty’s classmates who were worried about her. They tell her that the feds also gave them trouble. The important thing is, though, that there is a student meeting this evening concerning a proposal to label Purity a terrorist hate group and have it banned from campus. Alice Tremaine, from law school, is speaking on Purity’s behalf and she demands mutants be banned instead. The others ask Kitty to speak for their side. She’s stood up to Purity before. And got put on probation for it, Shola reminds them. Kitty agrees with him. Her probation devalues her stance, plus something’s come up. The others leave, clearly disappointed in what they consider her lack of guts.
Kitty changes her mind. She knows how deadly the Sentinels are, but she is aware that it is the belief that mutants are monsters that spawned them and that has to be fought. So, she goes to the meeting, unaware that the Sentinels are closing in, killing everyone the meet on the way, as “potential mutants.”
The discussion is opened with the question on whether the proposed ban on Purity infringes on any First Amendment rights to free speech. Alice is the first to get the word. As far as she is concerned that proposal is slander, since Purity has neither advocated nor committed any crime. They are being condemned simply for what they say. That’s because what they say is racist, states Kitty, joining the discussion. Alice sarcastically greets her and asks her if she intends to punch them out like she did last time. Refusing to let the other girl goad her, Kitty replies that she’s embracing the better half of her nature that night. Alice should try it some time. Alice uses that cue to point out that mutants are dangerous. So are some men, Kitty shoots back. But human beings can’t shoot beams from their eyes, Alice retorts and insists that mutants are not human. Kitty reminds her that people used to say the same about Blacks, Jews, Gypsies and other minorities.
While they keep on arguing, Shola notices Tom standing apart from the others and tells him that he knows Tom visited Alice the other day. Tom admits that Alice used to be his girlfriend, but they are done now. He wants nothing to do with her anymore. In the meantime, the Sentinels have found what’s left of their scout and track residual traces of mutants. They scan and find their targets on campus.
Kitty gets angrier and angrier, but finds herself capable of staying reasonable and calm, possibly because of her shrink sessions. She argues that Purity’s rhetoric inspires violence or murder. Tom Paine’s “Declaration of Man” inspired two violent revolutions, Alice retorts, implying that this obviously cannot be such a bad thing. Shan, in the meantime, has joined Tom and Shola in the crowd, telling them that she checked for inbound freighters on her notebook and found out that the Amazon Belle docked shortly before the disappearances began. Tom argues that, as a non-mutant, he wouldn’t be a target and decides to check it out.
Alice, in the meantime, argues that a university is supposed to be a sanctuary, which is why they don’t allow guns on campus, but muties like Shola – as she points at him – are their living equivalent. Shola is about to go ballistic, but Kitty asks him to calm down and not let Alice goad him. Take a walk, she’ll handle her. Kitty points out that a sanctuary means that diversity is encouraged. Shola, for instance, has so far proven to be an exemplary student and guest of the country. But because of a difference in his genes his family’s been killed, he’s been burned out of his home, he’s been insulted and now Purity would like to see him banned. If people haven’t the human decency to realize how wrong the entire discussion is, maybe they don’t belong.
Shan and Shola grab a coffee and head outside, strongly impressed by the way Kitty argues their case. As Shola mentions that, for some, hate comes naturally, Shan admits she would have counted him among them, considering they killed his family. Shola is taken aback: nothing justifies prejudices, he’s better than that. His parents taught him that life is about choices and he honors their memory by walking a path to peace and tolerance. Shan muses she wishes it weren’t so hard. How many people in there would listen to Kitty if they knew she was a mutant and former X-Man?
Shola suddenly wonders what the incoming lights are. It’s the Sentinels coming to kill them all and Shan frantically shouts for Kitty that a fight is about to start.


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Memento Mori
The student union is about to be attacked by smaller versions of the new breed of Sentinels. Outside the building stand Shan Coy Manh and Shola Inkosi, looking in horror at the creatures. Shan’s powers are useless against the robots, the telekinetic Shola, however, fights back, while shouting for Kitty Pryde to come out and help them.
Shola shields Shan from the Sentinels’ attack, then propels his own body towards one of the creatures, drawing their fire on him and then capturing them in a telekinetic sphere, the way he handled the last Sentinel attack. Unfortunately, the creatures adapt – in this case, they overcome Shola’s telekinetic barriers by finding their way through the ground: tentacles appear from out of the ground surrounding the two mutants.
Shola urges Shan to run: she has to think of her family. She should find Kitty- he’ll cover her escape. Shan doubts it the way he is burning up energy, but runs only to find her way blocked by another Sentinel. Shola attempts to draw their fire on him and succeeds for the most part. While the robots recognize Shan as a Class 1 mutant, they also realize that she is a minimal threat with her psychic powers. Most of them focus on Shola but two follow Shan, who unfortunately finds that she ran into a dead end. With her back against the wall, she shouts for Shola as the creatures are closing in on her when, suddenly, she finds herself grabbed by two arms and phased backwards through the wall- it’s Kitty to the rescue.
Instead of running, Kitty keeps the two of them phased in the wall. Phasing the wall as well, she lets go at the very moment when the robot hits it – leaving it stuck and badly damaged. However, the second one bursts through the wall and attacks Kitty with a barbed tentacle. Shan warns her not to phase – the Sentinel will network with the others and develop a counter measure. She smashes it with a tool lying around – both girls strike until an exhausted Shola joins up with them and telekinetically smashes it into the ground.
At that point, they hear sirens. The police and campus security arrive with no idea what they are getting themselves in for. They’ve just given the Sentinels a whole new set of targets and, indeed, the Sentinels scan the cops and find their genome patterns are within parameters of potential mutants. Detective Paulie Ramos stares in horror and disbelief as the robots turn their attention on them.
Kitty figures they have to stop the Sentinels before they get a hold of the cops’ guns. She calls Tom More on her cell phone and tells him to drive onto the campus, while the exhausted Shola runs interference. This time, he gets hit though. Kitty grabs Shan and Shola, phasing all of them, while the Sentinels keep on firing at them. The Sentinels pull back to regroup. Kitty intends to use that time and asks Shan to possess the students and get them out of the building. She takes her friend’s hand to make sure they can’t hurt her and Shan makes the supreme effort of leading all of them out of the building where the police take care of them.
Tom finally arrives and they enter his car, once more giving the Sentinels who follow them a solid target. She tells him to drive as fast as he can out of the city and off-campus. Shola zaps a robot, getting them to follow.
Back at the ruins of the students union, Alice Tremaine is still there. As far as she is concerned, this mess is Kitty’s and the mutant’s fault and she’ll see them expelled for that. Suddenly, she finds a badly damaged small Sentinel before her. The robot scans her, announcing she is baseline human and therefore an authorized user. Alice realizes that her and the robot’s purpose are the same and picks it up.
Back at the car, Kitty tells Tom to head for Bessemer Station, while Shan does her best to patch Shola up. Suddenly, the Sentinels lift the car up into the air. The others grab onto Kitty and she phases them, dropping them down. Shola trashes the car and the four Sentinels, an effort that takes everything out of him.
Kitty tells the others that the Sentinels are made of spare parts and a mechanism is only as strong as its weakest component. Shan grabs the gaping Tom, while Kitty phases them all underground. Tom protests that he wasn’t in danger. He’s not a mutant, so the Sentinels will leave him alone. The others wonder if he’s right. Kitty finally phases them into the foundry of Bessemer’s. The walls down there are ten meters thick, reinforced concrete, steel and lead, as it was rebuilt for a major fusion experiment.
Kitty lets the others in on the plan. They can’t defeat the Sentinels one by one. They learn too quickly. And, if one gets away, they reproduce and start all over. She tells Shola to work with Shan, she can prop him up. Shan protests: he is too badly hurt, but Shola tells her it is his decision. Tom tells them that Purity says their kind is evil, but he is over that. They can count him right in.
Kitty plays bait. When the Sentinels come crashing in, she seemingly panics and runs. The Sentinels follow straight into a trap, as Tom, whom they ignore, pulls a lever dropping several tons of steel plating on them. Shan lightly possesses Shola, adding to his strength. Shola uses his TK to create an energy sphere in the middle of the chamber as Tom pulls out the phased Kitty. Then, Shola, in pain and with Shan’s help, compresses the sphere. Finally, the creatures are destroyed by the intense heat, as even the walls are nothing more than polished glass. Exhausted, they fall down as police sirens come closer.
Later, the four backtrack the Sentinel signature to the freighter, Amazon Belle, and find the ship stripped to the walls – nothing left but a shell. Near as they can determine, the Sentinels are done for.
In the meantime, in the Evanston home of Alice Tremaine’s parents, Alice is cobbling together the small, damaged Sentinel in her parents’ basement. She admires the little robot and its efficiency. To all intents and purposes, it is walking Alice through the repairs, showing her step-by-step how to repair and improve it. As her father calls her to supper, Alice hides the robot. She tells it that that they will take their time finding the proper components. But, when she’s done, they’ll deal with the muties once and forever.
Elsewhere, in her office, Dr. Maureen Lyszinksi listens to the news about the police investigating the mysterious attack on the student union. Apparently, there were no fatalities. At that moment, Kitty enters and apologizes for her lateness. Her almost shy behavior is in stark contrast to her former brashness. Maureen asks her if she was involved with what happened at the university. Kitty curtly tells her, yes. She admits, with what happened last session, she wasn’t sure if Maureen would actually want her back. Why? Maureen asks. Because she was harsh and way out of line. Maureen explains that this is part of what they are doing here. Taking a look at the ugly things inside and finding a way to cope. The fact that Kitty keeps coming back, tells her how much she needs her. And, more importantly, that Kitty knows it. Kitty admits that she’s scared and that she is a mutant. No, Maureen corrects her. She’s a human being and her patient and this is her life and future to shape. As long as she lives and keeps on fighting, she has options and she doesn’t have to face them alone. So, where do they begin, Kitty asks.
Later, Kitty stands before the Belles of Hell, still observed by the FBI and finds herself joined by Detective Ramos. She asks him if he wants a beer. Ramos tells her that the feds may still be on he case but, after what she did for him and his guys, she’s got the respect of Chicago’s Finest. Kitty looks inside the bar, seeing her friends waiting for her and waving at her. She thinks to herself that she came here to learn whether mutants could have anything resembling a normal life. Things may not quite have worked out the way she hoped but, all things considered, she figures, she’s off to a pretty good start.