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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Part 1
This is not the worst of it.
Kiden, a young, blonde mutant girl, lays battered, bruised and beaten teenage on a wooden table. Iron shackles adorn her wrists and ankles. Blood trickles from her nose and comes to rest against the duct tape covering her mouth. Her one un-blackened eye and her IV are her only links to the cruel reality of the damp, tile-covered room around her. “No one loves you,” a voice says. “No one misses you. You’re a filthy girl. Dirty.”
An unknown speaker considers the severity of the word “worst” before using it loosely. The speaker has had years to contemplate the lows conferred by life, and through this contemplation reached the understanding that some things cannot be avoided; some lives must always end in pain. It doesn’t understand why. Fate shouldn’t be that simple. It should be easily malleable, even be breakable. One can only do so much with the variations it provides. “You are mine, little girl. I got you,” the other, audible voice continues. “I got you good.”
The speaker declares it would do anything to protect Kiden. This is my fault, it says.
Manhattan. 48 hours earlier…
Kiden gleefully digs through a dumpster in a dark alley in the city. After scouring through piles and piles of trash, she emerges with a treasure most beloved: a shattered snow globe dripping with vomit. “Perfect,” she says. Her friend Tatiana sidles up to the dumpster and sighs. Doesn’t Kiden have a job? Yeah, Kiden says as she tosses the snow globe to Tatiana and pulls herself out of the dumpster. Tatiana asks her why she collected this snow globe; Kiden answers it is a birthday present for Bobby. He’ll most definitely appreciate the vomit, Tatiana says. Kiden reminds her Bobby isn’t picky. Besides, she can wash off the vomit. Tatiana doubts she can wash away the smell.
Thinking back on her life thus far, Kiden remembers things haven’t always been this way. She used to have a real home, with parents and siblings. A few men with guns took all that away. Kiden followed the loss of her father with seven years of bad choices that led her to where she is today: drugs, parties, self-mutilation. Life is such a bitch, she says.
While she and Tatiana walk home, Kiden realizes she no longer dwells on the choices she has made. She used to, but learned it’s a big waste of time. The past, after all, is crap: useless, insubstantial crap. Life is meant to be lived in the moment. With this philosophy, one might be surprised to learn Kiden has friends; opening her heart to other people, after all, is the quickest way to get hurt. Happened plenty of times to me already, she thinks as she and her friend Tatiana climb the stairs to their floor. But I guess I’m a sucker.
They enter the apartment. Their friend Bobby Soul turns and greets them while trying to feed a spoonful of cereal to his catatonic younger brother. He and Lil’ Bro were just wondering where the two ladies went, he says. They joke around with him a bit: they were shopping, getting their nails done, spending their millions, etc. They got nothing for the boys, Bobby asks? He turns his attention back to Lil’ Bro and pleads with him to just take one bite. Can he take just one bite for his older brother?
Kiden, meanwhile, returns to her room and places the old snow globe in her hiding place. When she comes back to the kitchen, she asks Bobby how long he has been trying to feed Lil’ Bro. Thirty minutes, he answers. He knows his brother is hungry; maybe he is weary of this new brand of cereal. Kiden smiles and snatches the food-filled spoon out of Bobby’s hand. What’s on his agenda for the day, she asks? Astral possession? Temporary amnesia? Flexing some muscle for the mob? Bobby Soul jokingly reminds her the black Mafia doesn’t exist, and the white Mafia certainly doesn’t hire “boys” like him.
While Kiden teases Bobby, Lil’ Bro’s right eye suddenly glimmers a bright, emerald green. They likely don’t notice. Kiden takes a turn at spoon-feeding the stoic kid. She thinks he is cute, even though he has major head issues. Sometimes, she feels strange around Lil’ Bro, she admits. She feels like she knows him better than she should. She especially feels like he knows her way too well. Meanwhile, deep in Lil’ Bro’s eyes, far beyond Kiden’s perception, a shadowed man with glowing red eyes looks back at her.
Cameron Palmer returns home with groceries. Formerly their teacher, Ms. Palmer was the surrogate mother of students everywhere. Kiden still blames herself for almost getting the poor woman killed. She wonders if Ms. Palmer still holds it against her. Judging by her warm smile, it’s unlikely. She was just on her way to school, Cameron tells them, when she decided to stop in and make sure the kids were alive. Tatiana asks her if she got her old job back. Not quite, Ms. Palmer says. For now, she is subbing for other teachers. It’s a trial period. “If no one fires a gun…” she begins.
Kiden hides her face in shame. “You just had to bring that up,” she says.
Ms. Palmer ignores her. She might get to return to teaching soon, and as a teacher, it is her job to remind these kids they should be in school. Predictably, they grumble. Tatiana hopes Ms. Palmer isn’t suggesting home school. No, she says; she means real school. She wants them back in the classroom, where they belong. Kiden refuses; she has been punished enough in her life. Ms. Palmer reminds them of how young they are. Tatiana is only fifteen, and the other two, sixteen or seventeen, tops. They’re babies, she says. Sure, they’re hardened, dangerous, mutant criminals, but in the end they are still kids. They need to think of their futures. Kiden objects to being called a criminal; Ms. Palmer is just as much a criminal as her. Besides, she can’t go back to school; too many questions will be asked. Same here, Bobby Soul says. Plus, he needs to spend his time earning a living for him and his little brother.
Tatiana has a much simpler excuse. Everyone now knows she is a mutant, and with the Purifiers out there, it’s too dangerous to go back into public. Ms. Palmer begins to provide a counter-point, but Tatiana looks at her in horror. “No! They’ll kill me, Ms. Palmer. They would have before, if…if…” she says, trailing off. Ms. Palmer finally relents. However, if they insist on skipping school, they can at least catch up on their studies. She gives them a stack of course books, as well as information on how to obtain a GED. It’s the only way they’re getting out of here, she adds.
“Here’s not so bad,” says Kiden. Ms. Palmer scoffs and reminds her of her chronic dumpster-diving. It’s her art form, Kiden insists. That may be, Ms. Palmer says, but it isn’t her destiny. She has great things in her future. All of them do. They cannot settle for this slum life. Bobby jokingly asks the teacher if she plans on walking them to their destinies. She corrects him; she will drag them there kicking and screaming, if she has to.
Later, Kiden leaves to go to work. Having a job has removed some of the pressure from day-to-day living, she admits, although her boss hates it when she comes in late. So, she never does. Kiden steps off the curb right into the path of an absent-minded skateboarder. He yells for her to watch out right as he is ejected from his board. This sudden event triggers Kiden’s mutant ability. Time seems to freeze in that moment, capturing the skateboarder in mid-air.
Whenever she slows time, Kiden has trouble resisting the temptation to vanish. It would be so easy for her to disappear. After all, she has done it before. She takes the time to enjoy this serene moment. After ducking under the airborne skateboarder, she twirls her arms and dances through the stillness. Everything is quiet. She is but a ghost, dancing between raindrops. Hunger and fear do not exist in this world. There is nothing but beauty. Unfortunately, she now has people who depend on her. Responsibility: what an ugly word, she thinks. For now, however, it is better than the alternative. Kiden walks up to the door of her café and releases her grip on time.
Working at the café is easy enough. Kiden busses tables, washes dishes, and takes the trash out at the end of the night, among other things. She even has her mail delivered to that address, much to her boss’ chagrin. He brings her another letter at the end of the night. Kiden’s eyes widen as she looks at it. The letter, addressed to her mother Elizabeth Nixon, has been marked Moved, Not Forwardable. “Mom,” she says to herself, “…where’d you go?”
Nearby, unbeknownst to Kiden, a thuggish spectator in an S.U.V. films her anguish with a handheld camera.
One of the perks of working for Moe is that Kiden eats for free. In addition, he lets her take leftovers home to feed her friends. It’s nothing glamorous, but it’s preferable to eating out of the dumpster. Tonight, however, it matters not; it’s dinner night at Ms. Palmer’s place. Kiden admits she isn’t a spectacular cook, but she either makes a lot of food or orders pizza.
As the teenagers step off the city bus, Tatiana informs Bobby Soul her paycheck was a bit short this month. What are they going to do, she asks? Kiden asks what they’re talking about, to which Bobby replies they’re discussing rent. Specifically, how they are short for the month. Kiden seems shocked; according to her calculations, they should have enough! Regrettably, Bobby informs her that their landlord jacked the rent up a hundred bucks. Worse than that, he wants it in two days. Worst of all, he only applied the rate-hike to them; Bobby asked around and found out himself. Tatiana suggests they borrow the money from Cameron. Kiden refuses to ask. After all, Ms. Palmer is having a hard enough time paying her own rent. Somehow, they’ll figure it out, Bobby says as they enter Ms. Palmer’s building.
Suddenly, Kiden hears a familiar voice speak her name. Kiden. She hears it deep within her mind. Kiden. The last time she heard this voice, bad things happened. And, just like last time, she sees her father’s specter, this time descending from the ceiling. He chants her name. Kiden. Dad, she says? The ghost tells her to run. Run now.
Kiden’s jaw drops. Bobby and Tatiana open the door to Ms. Palmer’s apartment. Kiden drops her bag of food. Her eyes widen. She begs them to wait, but it’s too late: the open the door, and see that the apartment has been ravaged. Chaos, broken glass, scattered cotton, and strewn clothes adorn what once was a safe haven. Even more disturbing is the blood splattered around the entire apartment. Most foreboding of all, in the center of the wall, a happy photograph of Cameron Palmer, Bobby Soul, Lil’ Bro, Tatiana, and Kiden hangs, held in place by a butterfly knife stabbed right through Kiden’s eye.
This is going to be worse.


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

[Assistant]
Part 2
Tatiana stares at the blood-spattered apartment in shock. In a single moment, the world she knows has ended. She cannot help but recall the day her father walked out on her family when she was eleven. She never saw it coming; one day, he was there; the next, gone. She has slowly rebuilt her life ever since. After finally obtaining stability, she lost everything, this time because of a few drops of blood. Now, it’s happening again.
The teenagers look around the trashed apartment, but see no sign of its inhabitant, Ms. Cameron Palmer. Kiden checks the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. Although she doesn’t find her former school teacher, she stumbles upon a personal correspondence between Cameron and her ex-husband, who apparently left because of her commitment to Kiden and her downtrodden peers. Kiden sighs and shuts her eyes; her father could have warned her about this, she says. She might have saved Ms. Palmer.
“You still can,” a voice says. Kiden looks in the mirror and sees the specter of her father, with his empty black eyes and blood-streaked face. She asks him for help, but as quickly as it appeared, the ghost vanishes.
Meanwhile, in the living room, Tatiana notices Bobby Soul’s withdrawn behavior. He clutches Lil’ Bro in his arms so tightly, Tatiana wonders if he might crush him. She can practically feel it; the atmosphere in the apartment seems to be crushing her as well. Because her back is turned toward Bobby, she does not see when he notices a familiar article of clothing stuffed under the couch.
Tatiana approaches the photograph threateningly pinned to the wall. She pulls the photograph, a candid picture of her, Kiden, Ms. Palmer, Bobby, and Lil’ Bro, out from under the point of the butterfly knife. Who would do this? Kiden tells her to be quiet; the neighbors might hear. Tatiana complies, and says they need to leave immediately.
As they leave the apartment, Tatiana thinks about how safe she felt with Kiden and Bobby. She felt protected again, after so many years of anguish. They made her feel as if she could stand on her own two feet. I was so stupid, she thinks. Once they exit the building, her grief overwhelms her, and Tatiana pukes in the bushes. She fears the police will accuse them, even though they did nothing. Bobby Soul objects to even speaking with the police. Tatiana reminds him someone was murdered, but Kiden doubts this. There may have been blood, but there was no body. They can still save Cameron. They just need to find her.
Bobby, hoisting his little brother into his arms, disagrees. They need to take care of themselves. Obviously whoever kidnapped their mentor knows exactly who the four of them are; they were in the ominous picture pinned to the wall, after all. Bobby interprets this to mean they should mind their own business. Kiden, placing her hand on Bobby’s shoulder, reminds him their mentor needs their help. He whips around and slaps her hand away. “I know, Kiden. I know,” he says. “But what we just walked into…you don’t pull that crap for nothing.” Besides, he has a brother to look after. He asks Kiden and Tatiana to come home with him.
“So I guess if it were one of us, you’d just let us rot,” Kiden asserts.
“I’d survive,” Bobby answers.
Nothing lasts. Not even family, Tatiana tells herself as they walk through the darkening city streets. Ms. Palmer tried to convince her families stayed together. Apparently, that was all talk, and Tatiana foolishly believed it. While she walks alongside Kiden, struggling with her current doubts, a thug sitting in a parked car across the street watches gleefully. He pulls out his cell phone and reports to his boss. It’s done, the man says. The voice on the other end tells him it’s not over yet. The thug laughs and flashes his jagged, gold-capped smile. His boss must know he’s asking for trouble.
The police arrive at Tatiana and company’s apartment well before they make it back home. Clearly someone has set them up. Why, Tatiana asks? Because they’re mutants? Kiden finds that unlikely. “You don’t kidnap some teacher and frame a bunch of kids just ‘cause they’re muties,” she says. “This is personal.”
She walks around the corner and into clear view. Grabbing her arm, Bobby asks where she thinks she is going. She reminds him of the money and other things they left in the apartment, and promises not to get caught. Bobby refuses to release her. She orders him to let go. Tatiana, meanwhile, watches this tense exchange in silence. Does Bobby think Kiden won’t return? Does he want to be the one who sneaks into their apartment? Would Bobby truly leave them, Tatiana asks? Bobby doesn’t answer.
The police try and stop Kiden from crossing their boundary, but after triggering her mutant power, she sneaks by easily. With the world seemingly frozen, she can freely move about undetected. First she sneaks into her bedroom, walking directly behind a motionless police officer. She grabs a backpack and stuffs it full of some essential possessions, such as a roll of dollar bills and the broken snow globe she found for Bobby. As she prepares to leave the apartment, however, she spots a damning piece of planted evidence in the hands of one of the cops: a butterfly knife, just like the one left in Cameron’s apartment. Kiden grabs it out of the investigator’s hand and disappears.
One hour later, with no place left to go, the four vagrant kids sit at a booth in a diner and ponder what to do. Bobby remains unusually quiet; Kiden asks if he is still thinking of ways to ditch the rest of them. Enough, he tells her, shooting her a wounded glare. She refuses to budge. If they intend to help Cameron, she says, they need to trust each other.
Bobby asks who she means when she says “we.” She doesn’t know how Tatiana feels about everything. He asks for her opinion. “You want to know how I feel, Bobby?” she asks. She feels as if she has no friends in the world, except for them, and Ms. Palmer. It’s pathetic. She wishes she had other people in her life on whom she could depend, but she doesn’t. Therefore, if Kiden wants to save Ms. Palmer, Tatiana will help her. “You can do what you like, Bobby,” she concludes. “I’ll still…I’ll be your friend, anyway.” Although her eyes are diverted toward the dinner table, Tatiana can feel Kiden’s appreciative grin. Tatiana asks her not to look at her that way. What way? Kiden asks.
Bobby slams his hand down on the dinner table. Enclosed in its grip is the ski cap he found in Ms. Palmer’s apartment. He tells his friends where he found it, and most importantly, that it belongs to someone he knows. Why didn’t he tell them sooner, Kiden asks? Tatiana doubts he would have ever told them at all. If that’s the case, Bobby asks, then why would he show them the cap now? Kiden calls him a coward. Bobby asks her not to judge him. He feared if they went searching for Ms. Palmer’s kidnappers, it would shatter the life they had made. According to Kiden, that doesn’t matter, as Cameron would help them if the situation were reversed. Although he does not acknowledge it aloud, Kiden’s empowered behavior impresses Bobby; he thought she was a runner. “Still am,” Kiden says. “Just running in another direction.”
Sometime later, the gang travels to a housing project so litter-strewn it might as well be a landfill. “If we’re going to be homeless, let’s not be homeless here,” Tatiana says as they climb the building’s stairs. They near their destination. Kiden asks Bobby why he didn’t introduce them to these friends of his earlier. Because they’re not his friends, he answers. He knocks on the door. A young, black toddler answers. Someone has bruised her eye. Bobby says hello to the little girl, whose name is Keisha, and asks if her daddy is home. Silently, she lets them into the apartment. Bobby sees a bong and a handgun resting on the coffee table near some empty beer bottles, but no signs of any people. “Probably out trying to frame us for more crimes,” Kiden jokes. Good, Bobby says. The longer the residents stay away, the longer they have to search the apartment for clues.
Tatiana walks into an adjacent bedroom while carrying Lil' Bro in her arms. She doesn’t see the shirtless man hiding behind the door. Instead, she sees an ashtray sitting on the bed, with a freshly lit cigarette resting in its notches. Before she has a chance to process what this means, the thug closes the door, covers Tatiana’s mouth, and holds a handgun to her temple. She’s not supposed to be there, he says. Shocked, Tatiana drops Lil’ Bro, but the boy lands safely. He looks up at the menacing thug, his eyes now radiating an electric blue. The thug looks at the swirling blue patterns of energy that emanate from Lil’ Bro’s eyes in confusion. Before he can react, the image of a gigantic centipede materializes in the center of the room. “Get away! Jesus!” the thug says, firing his gun at the mirage.
With the thug’s attention elsewhere, Tatiana bites down on his hand, freeing her from his grip. She immediately realizes what she has done. Blood, after all, triggers her mutant power. Her body grows in size. Her newly formed muscles burst through the sleeves of her jacket. Her breasts and hair disappear. For one brief moment, in the middle of her transformation into the man she bit, she glimpses a hidden thought in his mind and learns where Ms. Palmer is being held.
The thug stares at Tatiana in disbelief, only she no longer resembles Tatiana. She now looks like him: built, black, bald, and male. Although Tatiana urges him not to be afraid, he points the gun at her and fires. Once again, just like that, everything in Tatiana’s threatens to disappear. She lies on the floor, the blood spilling from her right shoulder and pooling on the carpet, and realizes that although she never thought things like this would happen to her, they sometimes do, just like that.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Part 3
Bobby Soul used to have a sister. Two years his senior, he and Mali took care of each other when their deadbeat mother would not. They did alright for themselves. However, that all ended one day when Mali was kidnapped on her way home from school. Her naked body was later found in a dumpster. She was sixteen.
As Bobby Soul witnesses the tableau of some shirtless thug waving a pistol and standing over the dying Tatiana, he cannot help but remember Mali. Kiden kneels down and applies pressure to Tatiana’s bullet wound, while Bobby goes for the attacker. He lunges at him, knocking him to the ground, and rips the gun out of his hand. The flurry of punches that follow nearly knock the thug unconscious. The whole time, Bobby cannot stop thinking about Mali.
His mother once told him to be the man of the house. At fourteen, that was difficult, especially since he was up against the men his mother brought home. One such man saw Mali and decided he wanted to have his way with her, too. If that was his mother’s definition of a “man”, Bobby wanted nothing to do with it. He even worried his father, whom he never knew, may have been cut from that same cloth. Nothing terrified Bobby more than becoming one of those monsters.
Kiden interrupts him and tells him to stop punching. They need him alive, she says. Bobby steadies his fists.
After Mali died, he almost left home, he recalls. By then, however, he had a little brother to raise. Lil’ Bro was all smiles back then, a chatterbox like the older sister he barely knew. That ended the day his mother left Lil’ Bro alone with another of her boyfriends. Bobby Soul was the one who found them. He struggles to suppress the memory of what he saw and especially what he did to that man. That was the first time he possessed another person’s body. It had permanent consequences. Since that day, Lil’ Bro hasn’t spoken a word.
“Y’know,” Kiden says, picking up the thug’s handgun, “…I think I like this gun.” After brandishing it for a moment, she kneels over the battered thug and shoves the barrel into his mouth. The man makes some garbled noises; Kiden asks if she heard correctly. Did he just order her to do something? Maybe Bobby damaged the man’s brain. After all, he is in no position to bark orders. The way Kiden sees it, she’s in charge, and if this thug thinks Tatiana stealing his face was scary, just wait until he sees what Kiden can do. “Try not to scream,” she says. “I’ll take it slow.”
She pulls the gun out of his mouth. He immediately asks her what she wants to know. Kiden asks where they took Cameron Palmer, but the thug doesn’t know; he passed her off to someone else. The only things he knows about their employer are that he has multiple tattoos and pays in cash. He doesn’t know the man’s name. They brought Cameron to Empire State, the same place they met the guy. Kiden begins to ask if he’s lying, but Bobby interrupts her with other news: Tatiana, having reverted back to her old body, is awake.
Suddenly, the apartment door opens, and a group of gangsters enter with their lady friends. D’Sean asks the ladies which they would rather do first: eat, or get naked? His associate, meanwhile, calls out for Frankie, but after pushing open the bedroom door, sees him lying under the point of Kiden’s gun. D’Sean immediately addresses Bobby, whom he recognizes. It takes the gangsters only a moment to decide how to deal with these intruders. They draw their guns and take aim.
Bobby Soul tries to possess one of them, but hesitates. Each possession takes a piece of his soul, after all. He often wonders if he will possess someone, but not find his way back home. Fortunately, Kiden takes action. After hoisting Lil’ Bro into her arms, she places her left foot in Tatiana’s hand, and with her free hand, clasps fingers with Bobby. The guns fire. Kiden triggers her mutant ability just before the bullets connect, locking the moment in place. Dumbfounded, Bobby stares at the slowly approaching bullets with a wide-eyed look on his face. “Jesus,” he says.
“Amen,” Kiden replies. Bobby asks if she knew she could take others with her. She didn’t. Obviously they need to get out of there, but Kiden worries what will happen if she lets go of her friends. So, while maintaining a constant, physical connection, they lift Tatiana off the ground and exit the apartment.
As they leave, Bobby states that although he knows how he ended up with Kiden and Tatiana, he doesn’t know why he stays with them. No, that’s wrong. I do know, he corrects. I was lonely. I missed girls. I missed my sister. Sneaking by the motionless gangsters, Kiden implores Bobby to not touch any of them. Human touch wakes the world up, and can even be lethal. Anything else he needs to know, Bobby jokingly asks? Tatiana speaks up and coughs out a few words; she has something to tell them. Bobby asks her to hang tight.
To answer his initial question, Kiden warns Bobby of another threat in the pause-world: zombies. Whatever, he says, but Kiden insists; she urges him to beware the zombies’ foul and hairy spore. Again, whatever, Bobby says. He asks how far the pause-world extends; does it cover the entire world? Although Kiden doesn’t know, she does know she can spend an indefinite amount of time in it, without getting hungry or tired. She can’t even feel pain. “You just…drift,” she says. “Like a ghost.”
Bobby understands ghosts. He might even be one. Possession has become his answer to everything; it forces people to notice him, and helps him forget his own problems. I was so stupid, he thinks. As they near the hospital, Tatiana once again tries to speak up about what she learned from Frankie, but Bobby and Kiden do not listen. They approach the automatic door and prepare themselves for the inevitable commotion.
Kiden lets go and they storm through the door. They demand immediate help for Tatiana. While the doctors take her away, Tatiana informs Kiden she experienced all of Frankie’s memories; she even has a contact number. “555…4150…” she mutters repeatedly. The doctors ask Kiden to step away, while another questions Bobby what happened.
Meanwhile, on the hospital lobby’s television, a newscaster reports a story about the murder of an unregistered, 29 year-old mutant artist in Wyoming. Mutant rights groups apparently deemed her death an act of genocide against the dwindling mutant population.
A nurse approaches Bobby and asks about Tatiana’s gunshot wound. They were just walking down the street, he explains. Louise, a nurse, tells them Tatiana will be in surgery, and it will be a few hours before they know anything definitively. In the meantime, she suggests they take a seat; the police will surely have questions for them.
The news channel switches stories. Its next story concerns a local event: the disappearance of Cameron Palmer. According to the newscaster, authorities are seeking three teens for questioning who might be involved in her disappearance. The station flashes three pictures of Bobby Soul, Kiden Nixon, and Tatiana Caban, and urges anyone who sees them to immediately contact the authorities. Louise happens to see their photos and realizes who they are. As she turns to apprehend Kiden and Bobby, however, she sees they have already fled.
Later, in the quad of Empire State University, Kiden asks Bobby about his continued silence. He hasn’t said a word since they left the hospital. He tells her that their plan stinks; calling the number Tatiana discovered will only make them more of a target. What are they supposed to say when they call, anyway? Ask politely for Ms. Palmer? Kiden chides his cowardice, and assures him they won’t be hunted much longer. Everything will be alright. She leans in for hug, but notices the blood on both her and Bobby’s hands.
Before they can make the phone call, they need a phone, and Kiden knows exactly where to obtain one. Freezing time, she darts over to a couple’s table and swipes not only their cell phone, but their entire dinner. Afterward, she, Bobby, and Lil’ Bro find a place on the grass to sit and eat. Bobby begins dialing. What should he say, he asks? Kiden recommends a liberal use of expletives. Bobby informs her she just lost her babysitting privileges.
The phone begins ringing. Nearby, another cell phone receives an incoming call. The tattooed man with gold-capped canine teeth emerges from behind a tree. Boo, he says nonchalantly.
Meanwhile, in the hospital, the surgeons complete Tatiana’s surgery. Luckily, the bullet only hit her shoulder, with only some moderate tissue damage. One doctor remarks that Louise is convinced the patient is a criminal. Another doctor reminds her that Louise needs to get a life. They begin the blood transfusion. To their bewilderment, Tatiana’s body transforms into the body of a middle-aged, heavy-set white woman. Without having to be told, a nurse named Alice picks up the phone and dials the mutant registration hotline.
Back at the Empire State quad, Kiden shrugs her shoulders at the sight of their enemy; he doesn’t look so tough, she says. “Like you should talk,” the tattoo man quips back. He calls her a tatterdemalion, a waif, a punk, and a little mutant. He kidnapped their friend, Bobby reminds him, but the man asks if Bobby truly cares. Doesn’t his concern stem entirely from their implication on the kidnapping? “Are you a hypocrite, Bobby Soul? A good man?”
Why them, Kiden asks? Why single them out? Tattoo man replies that is his job; he softens things up as an introduction. “I push. I groom. Because all of this,” he says, “is just the beginning.” Beginning of what, Bobby asks? “Your survival,” the man answers.
Suddenly, Lil’ Bro’s eyes begin to glow. This time, he creates the illusion of a ferocious dragon battling a machine-man. Tattoo man chuckles. Bobby asks Kiden to get them out of there, but before she can respond, tattoo man sneaks up on her from behind and hits her over the head with the butt of his butterfly knife. She falls to the ground, unconscious. The man approaches Lil’ Bro next, but Bobby sternly tells him to stay away. “Or what?” the man laughs. “You’ll steal my body?” He knows how Bobby’s powers operate, and he knows Bobby will fall helpless as a baby should he possess his body. He might even forget everything including his little brother. “Is stopping me worth that price?” he asks. Again, Bobby orders him not to touch Lil’ Bro. Again, the man refuses. He might not be able to protect Lil’ Bro again, should something go wrong. He would be lost. Without Bobby, Lil’ Bro would be lost too.
I’m no one, except to my brother, Bobby thinks. Even he hardly notices I exist. But I made a promise. Never again. Never. No matter what. With that, he enters tattoo man’s body, and forces him to stab himself in the chest. The tattoo man slumps over, dead. Is this what it means to be a man, Bobby wonders? He doesn’t know. He begins drifting again, hoping someone, or something, will catch him and guide him back to his body.
Sometime later, Kiden wakes up from her faint, her vision still a bit blurry. She says hello to Lil’ Bro, the first person she sees upon waking. After telling him to take it easy, she gets up and walks over to Bobby, also just emerging from unconsciousness. Reaching out to take his had, she asks how he feels; he totally had her scared for a moment. However, he looks at her as he would a complete stranger. He curls up into the fetal position and clings to the wall. “Who are you?” he asks Kiden.


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[Assistant]
Untitled
Once again, Kiden Nixon has stopped time. She leaves the frozen Bobby Soul and Lil Bro and runs back to the park to collect their things. Look at her run, a voice observes. Not in all those years did I imagine it would be this way. Something about the murdered body of Tattoo Man catches Kiden’s eye. She approaches him and sees a calling card tucked under the brim of his ski-cap. She’s beautiful. She’s strong. She’s alive. And whatever happens, the voice says, …she’s going to stay that way. Kiden pulls out the card and looks around suspiciously. Someone, somewhere, has already seen the body.
From a distance, a woman with dyed hair and facial piercings observes Kiden’s face, up close and personal, through her sniper rifle. “Bang,” the sniper chick says with Kiden in her sights. Even with the entire world seemingly slowed to a crawl, the Sniper Chick somehow remains unaffected.
Kiden returns to Lil Bro and Bobby Soul, the latter of whom has apparently forgotten his own identity. After telling herself everything will be alright, Kiden returns to the normal flow of time, catching Bobby Soul mid-sentence. “—okay, I accept the fact we know each other, even that we might be friends,” he says. “But everything else you’ve told me is crazy.” Ignoring his denial, Kiden hands him his jacket. Where did she suddenly get all this stuff, Bobby asks? A moment ago, her hands were empty. Kiden tells him not to worry about it. Instead, he should focus on keeping his little brother warm.
Bobby turns to Lil Bro with a confused look on his face. Lil Bro stares back, expressionless. “Yo, about that. I don’t… know him,” Bobby says. Nevertheless, he reaches over and gently draping his jacket over Lil Bro’s shoulders. He lifts the little boy into his arms. Everything will be alright, he tells him. Kiden cannot help but smile.
Once again, she activates her mutant power and brings time to a stand-still, but not before taking Bobby’s hand in order to ensure the effect extends to him. They walk through the motionless, rose-hued streets of the city, en route to the hospital. Bobby asks Kiden if they two of them are an item. Kiden, caught off-guard by the odd question, tells him no, and adds she thought he had his memories back. Some of them, Bobby answers. Kiden asks if he even noticed the immobile state of the rest of the city. He finally does, and asks if Kiden is responsible. What does he think, she asks? He thinks she is weird. She thinks she liked him better when he had all of his memories. Changing subjects, Bobby asks again why he lost them. Kiden said he possessed someone. Does she know who, he asks? “Nope,” Kiden lies.
The three mutants finally arrive at the hospital, only to find it bustling with motionless activity. Out front, several reporters hold microphones to a group of nurses. Inside, they find the lobby filled with the military soldiers who handle mutant affairs. A line of them leads right to their friend Tatiana’s hospital room, just like a trail of breadcrumbs. Talk about overkill, Kiden says. She enters the room and two soldiers talking to a nurse beside the unconscious Tatiana’s hospital bed. Kiden sneaks up beside her, tells Bobby Soul to get ready, and lets go of his hand right as she returns the flow of time to normal.
A barrage of different noises and conversations immediately surround the three mutants. On the TV screen, Trish Tilby reports on the events at the hospital, while in that very room, a doctor derides the soldiers for brandishing their guns around his patients. While the armed soldiers talk to the nurse, Kiden stirs Tatiana awake, and grabs her hand in preparation for the temporal transition. “And away we – go?” Kiden says, confused. She looks around and realizes nothing has changed; the soldiers are moving just as quickly as she and her friends are.
“Yo. They can see us,” Bobby says. Kiden calmly acknowledges her plan did not work. One of the soldiers lifts his rifle to her face and orders her to stay still; he has authorization to use lethal force, should she attempt to access her mutant ability. The other officer calls for backup. A higher-ranking military operative orders his men to stand down; the three mutants are only kids! He lunges over to Bobby and grabs his arm. The armed soldiers, meanwhile, notice Kiden’s face scrunch up, as if in concentration. She appears to be trying something. They fire their rifles.
Fortunately, Kiden stops time moments before being obliterated by the bullets. She stands hand in hand, frozen in time, with her friends Tatiana, Lil Bro, Bobby Soul… and the high-ranking military officer, who came along for the ride. The officer gasps; what the hell is going on, he asks? He orders the kids not to move. Kiden, moving her head out of the approaching bullet’s trajectory, orders Bobby not to let go of the man. Bobby ignores her. He head-butts the officer right in the nose, forcing him to release his grip. The sudden release restores the normal flow of time, once again leaving the four mutants stuck in the same room with the officers intent on arresting them.
While Bobby Soul stares at the smoking ruins of the hospital wall, Kiden grabs onto his hand and tries to activate her mutant ability. It works after the second try. By the time the officers come to their senses, all four mutants have disappeared, including the one restrained on the stretcher, Tatiana.
As they flee the hospital, the time effect slowly wears off, eventually returning to normal. Bobby holds Tatiana in his arms, while Kiden carries Lil Bro. Tatiana, bleeding from her shoulder, says she does not feel so good. They need to get her to a doctor, Kiden says. Tatiana refuses; she was just at a doctor and almost got arrested, for no reason other than being a mutant! Kiden asks her to relax. No one plans on turning her in. Who does she think they are anyway? Kiden asks.
After Bobby tells Kiden to give using her mutant ability a rest, he says he knows of a doctor who might treat Tatiana. This doctor, who volunteers at local homeless shelters, works out of her apartment, off the record, and under the table. Tatiana doesn’t think they should trust anyone. Kiden agrees; as far as she can tell, Ms. Palmer is the only adult who wouldn’t rat them out. Well, what do they want to do then, Bobby asks? Play doctor? Kiden may have swiped some antibiotics from the hospital, but they have no thread or needles. Tatiana needs to see a professional. These are their lives, after all! They cannot keep messing around. Defensive, Kiden claims she did not start this fiasco. Bobby tells her she still needs to finish it. “I know you. I remember,” he says. “You’re too stubborn to live.” Kiden glares at him and walks away with Lil Bro. After taking a few steps, however, she turns around, and asks where they can find this doctor.
Later, in Chinatown, Kiden, Bobby, Tatiana, and Lil Bro walk through a seedy alleyway in search of the doctor’s home. They finally arrive at the door, which not only has extra locks, but an exterior covering made of steel bars. Kiden tells Bobby that if she wakes up in a bathtub full of ice without her kidneys, she is going to be pissed, especially if she doesn’t get a cut of the money. She rings the buzzer, repeatedly and impatiently. The viewing slot on the door finally opens. A black woman stares out at the kids on her porch. Tatiana sheepishly says “hi”; Bobby says they have an emergency; Kiden asks the doctor lady if she is done staring and if she can help them, or what? The woman glares and slams the viewing box shut. Thanks a lot, Kiden, says Tatiana.
The enraged Kiden begins ringing the buzzer and shouting. Suddenly, the door swings open, and the young mutants find themselves face-to-face with a woman wearing sweatpants, a loose-hanging bathrobe, and a ponytail full of cornrows. “Touch that buzzer on more time, kid, and I’ll kick your ass from here to the East River,” the doctor lady says. She opens the outer door and lets the strangers into her apartment. In the background, the TV broadcasts the breaking news from the hospital. Various pop-art posters adorn the walls, as well as a poster of the mutant singer Dazzler. The doctor switches off the TV set, glances at an old photo of herself alongside the X-Man Beast, and gets out her medical kit. After assuring the teenagers she is indeed a doctor, she asks Tatiana to sit on the bed, and tell her what happened.
The teenagers start telling an obvious lie about how Tatiana got shot and how they had to flee the hospital because they couldn’t pay the bill. “Try another one, kid,” the doctor lady says. “I saw the pictures of you guys on the news. Live reports at the hospital. You’re all Trish Tilby’s been talking about. God, I hate her,” she says. Tatiana insists they did not kill anyone. The doctor smiles and says her day is looking better, then. She turns to the other three kids in the operating room and asks them for some privacy; they can wait on the couch. Tatiana asks if Kiden can stay. Kiden pulls out a bag of stolen medical supplies and says she has some medicine Tatiana can use. “Whatever,” the doctor says. She orders Kiden to go wash her hands, bring her the box of sterilizer, and start boiling some water. She turns back to Tatiana and apologizes; this operation is going to hurt. Tatiana figured as much. The doctor asks how she is handling the pain. Tatiana says it hurts, but she can function; the doctors gave her some painkillers at the hospital. “I’ve seen grown men, way more doped up, with injuries not as bad as yours – and they screamed like babies,” the doctor says. “You’re one cool customer, compared to them. Very tough, kid. Very brave.”
In the kitchen, Bobby asks Kiden to just trust the doctor. She’s mean, Kiden says. “Just like you, huh?” Bobby asks.
Back in the operating room, the doctor asks Tatiana if her mutation gives her additional tolerance to pain. Tatiana’s eyes widen; she knows she is a mutant? It was on the news, the doctor tells her. She can see Tatiana getting worried. She apologizes and tells her she has nothing to worry about. Tatiana’s mutation is a part of her; whatever special thing she can do, it’s natural. She has nothing to fear. Easy for her to say, Tatiana says. She has never been hunted and feared just because of the way she was born. “Dios. I wouldn’t have chosen this. Never. And now everyone knows. Everyone. They’ll lock me up – just for that,” Tatiana says.
The doctor tells her to breathe, and take things one at a time. Tatiana finally asks for her name. “Cecelia,” the doctor says. “But you can call me… Doc Reyes.”
Changing subjects, Cecilia commends her patient for taking the risk to come see her. No place is safe for them right now, but they took their chances on a stranger anyway. Kiden interrupts and asks if Cecilia is a quack. Did she lose her job for stealing drugs or something? Cecilia asks Kiden if she knows how to talk without being insulting. She doesn’t, Tatiana says. While Kiden reels from that off-hand insult, Cecilia says her position in life came down to a matter of choices. She believed her choices made sense at the time. Tatiana asks how she feels about her choices now. Abruptly changing the subject, Cecilia tells her guests they should rest. She has to go out for a few hours, but while she is gone, they can help themselves to anything in her fridge. How do they know she won’t sell them out, Kiden asks? “Same way I know you won’t rob me and run,” Cecilia says. “Now rest.”
After getting dressed, Dr. Reyes walks into Chinatown. Kiden follows her in secret, observing as Cecilia enters a phone booth and dials a familiar number. “Hey, Hank. It’s me,” Cecilia says into the phone. After insisting everything is fine, she says she needs a favor.
Kiden, crouching behind a wall, fails to notice the hip-looking woman sneaking up on her. “So you’re what all the fuss is about,” the Sniper Chick says. Kiden asks who the hell she is. Nobody, Sniper Chick answers, much like the “nobody” Kiden found dead in the park earlier that morning. She hopes Kiden liked the gift she left for her.
“You bitch,” Kiden says, putting her finger in Sniper Chick’s face. She asks what happened to Ms. Palmer. Sniper Chick nonchalantly grabs Kiden by the collar and pulls back her fist, in preparation for a punch. Kiden tells her to try it. Activating her mutant ability, Kiden slows time to a crawl. Sniper Chick punches her in the face anyway. Kiden falls to the ground, stunned; her powers have no effect on this woman!
Sniper Chick tells the fallen Kiden she has much to learn, and she intends to teach her. However, she is much harder to kill than the other person Kiden and her friends killed. Whenever Kiden is ready to learn – whenever she is ready to get out of this mess – she can find her. Sniper Chick drops her calling card, which bears the Empire State University logo, on Kiden’s chest, and leaves. Kiden examines it alongside the other memento the woman left earlier that day: a picture of Cameron Palmer lying naked and bruised on a tile floor. She crumbles the picture in her hand.
Shortly thereafter, the Sniper Chick returns to a fancy lounge area. Tall cases of books adorn the walls on either side of the room’s large fireplace. Two people sit in lounge chairs by the fireplace, engaged in a game of chess. Sniper Chick reports they will have the girl by tomorrow, just as her boss planned. One of the unseen chess players relays Sniper Chick’s news to a man on the other end of a phone call. The man on the other end asks how their guest feels about that news. “She can see the pieces falling where they must,” the unseen man says, “…can’t you, Ms. Palmer?”
Cameron Palmer, chained to the other chair, makes her move in chess, and glares at her opponent. He continues his phone conversation. Everything is for the best, the voice on the phone says. The other chess player – the corpse of Kiden Nixon’s father – absolutely agrees.


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

[Assistant]
Untitled
Officer Nixon forgot he was dead the first time he witnessed his daughter die. The vision was so real; he felt like he was there, right next to her, when she was bludgeoned over the head. She looked older, but he knew it was her. The second time he saw her die, and the third time, he recognized her as well. It never got easier, either. Seeing your baby die never does.
The spectral Officer Nixon stares at myriad different paths, all projected onto pink crystals, laid out for his daughter. In all of them, she meets a grisly end: throat slit, drowning, eviscerated by Wolverine, slaughtered by the Thunderbolts, incinerated by a Sentinel, grafted onto a machine, and many more. In every variation of her future, Kiden Nixon will die prematurely. In every variation, that is, except one. Kiden has one chance to survive… even if it turns her into a monster.
Chinatown…
Kiden returns to the apartment of Doctor Cecilia Reyes. Her entrance wakes up both Lil Bro and his amnesiac older brother, Bobby Soul, who asks what Kiden learned. He notices a bruise on her face and asks what happened; did someone beat on her? Kiden covers her eye and says it’s nothing, but Bobby Soul refuses to let it go. Did Doctor Reyes do something to her? Again, Kiden says nothing happened; she got careless and fell. Right, Bobby says; sidewalks must have fists now. Since he refuses to let the issue rest, Kiden fesses up and begrudgingly reveals what happened.
“The doctor went straight to a pay phone,” Kiden says, folding her arms. “You wanna bet she’s not turning us in? Cops are probably on their way while we stand here being all chatty.” Tatiana, wearing an arm-sling and dressed in a borrowed Xavier Institute T-shirt, pulls pack the operating room curtain and asks what happened. Kiden asks her if she can walk. No, Tatiana tells her, before commenting on Kiden’s bruised eye. Kiden asks if it makes her look like a badass; Tatiana tells her she looks more like road kill. She notices Kiden packing up their bags, and asks why she wants to leave. It’s not safe, Kiden says. Tatiana reminds her no place is safe, but Kiden doesn’t care. Tatiana refuses to run after finding someone as nice as Doctor Reyes; Cecilia can help them, she says. Kiden asks if she would bet her life on that. The way she sees it, they can trust no one. They trusted Ms. Palmer, Tatiana says. Besides, she is tired of running. When does it ever stop? “It doesn’t,” Kiden says.
A short while later, Cecilia Reyes returns home with some groceries, only to find her apartment empty. She finds a hand-written note from Bobby on the coffee table. Dr. Reyes, thanks for helping. We didn’t take anything, the note reads. Scribbled beneath Bobby’s message is post-script from Tatiana: except for clothes, and some food. Will pay you back. Cecilia sighs and closes her eyes. “Damn.”
New York City…
It’s a chilly, overcast day in New York City. An elderly woman sits on her fire escape, reading the newspaper in the company of her cats. Below, residents of the city walk down its sidewalks, oblivious to the “WANTED” posters stapled to the telephone poles, bearing the pictures of Kiden Nixon, Tatiana Caban, and Bobby Soul. An undercover cop, standing outside of Kiden’s old apartment, reports back to his superior using a discrete headset. It’s only a matter of time before the kids return home, he says while doing his best to act nonchalant.
Meanwhile, across the street, Sniper Chick also reports back to her superior. She tells her boss she is aware of their competition; she can clearly see the undercover cop also staking out Kiden’s old crash pad.
A pizza deliver guy on a moped cruises down the street while yammering into his cell phone. He tells his buddy on the phone that women like it when guys treat them poorly; it’s like an aphrodisiac or something. He parks the moped and grabs his pizza delivery, but in the blink of an eye, it vanishes out of his hand. His jaw drops.
Both the undercover cop and Sniper Chick witness the pizza’s disappearance, but only the cop cares to investigate. Sniper Chick continues speaking into her phone. “Miss Nixon has never been subtle,” she says. “We’ll have to work on that first. Amongst other things.”
The subway tunnels…
Kiden, Bobby, Tatiana, and Lil Bro camp out in an alcove alongside one of New York City’s many subway tracks. They finish eating their stolen pizza. Kiden dangles her legs out of the alcove and stares longingly down the tunnel at the approaching train car. Bobby, meanwhile, tries to help Tatiana with her injured arm. She asks if she is still bleeding, but Bobby assures her she isn’t. Cecilia did a good job on her stitches. Tatiana remembers the doctor calling her tough; no one has ever called her “tough” before.
Bobby suddenly notices the rats in their cramped living quarters and throws up his arms in exasperation. He refuses to do this anymore. Do what, Kiden asks? Survive? No, Bobby says; he refuses to live like an animal. Maybe he could handle it if it was only him, but he has a little brother for whom he needs to care, and his brother deserves better. He intends to give him a better life, before this type of living is all he remembers… if he lives long enough to remember anything, that is.
Kiden asks where he intends to go; the entire city is looking for them. Bobby tells her he can start over somewhere else in the world. What about Ms. Palmer, Kiden asks? Tatiana reminds her they do not even know where to find their old teacher, and besides, none of them are fighters. Did they forget why those people took Ms. Palmer? “We’re the reason she’s in trouble,” Kiden says. Bobby, however, refuses to sacrifice his brother, or either one of his friends, just to rescue their old mentor. They mean more to him than she does. Kiden tells him that isn’t the point. She pulls on her hood and jumps down onto the tracks. She is going for a walk; if she doesn’t return in a couple of hours, they should go on without her. As the roaring train approaches, she turns to her teammates and tells them she does not want them to get hurt. Bobby screams for her to get out of the way; Kiden simply says goodbye. Although she freezes time and gets out of the train’s way, her friends only see her disappear, seemingly under its wheels, as it whizzes past.
Lil Bro, meanwhile, seems to be paying attention to something else entirely. While Tatiana and Bobby Soul try to figure out their next step, Lil Bro reaches out and grabs the hand of a nearby phantom man: Officer Nixon. The officer, Kiden’s deceased father, leans down and whispers something into Lil Bro’s ear. Suddenly, Bobby and Tatiana notice a blue light permeating their alcove. They turn and see an astral projection, emanating from Lil Bro’s eyes, that depicts Kiden being punched by the Sniper Chick, Ms. Palmer shackled to a chair, Kiden lying bound and gagged on a stretcher, and a simple business card bearing the words “Empire State University”. Tatiana gasps, and tells Bobby to pack his things.
Empire State University…
As she rounds a corner on the ESU campus, Kiden derides herself for abandoning her friends. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she says. What does she even plan on doing? Walking right up to her enemies and fighting her way to Ms. Palmer? “Jesus, what am I doing?”
“Praying, from the sound of it,” someone says. Kiden turns and sees her nemesis, the Sniper Chick, standing defiantly on the corner. Kiden asks if she plans on beating her up again. Perhaps later, she says. First, she wants to do an experiment; pain doesn’t seem to work on everyone. Kiden asks if pain worked on Ms. Palmer. Sniper Chick says she wouldn’t know; all she wanted from Ms. Palmer was fear, specifically enough fear to lure Kiden. Kiden asks why she didn’t just kidnap her instead, but Sniper Chick insists that would defeat the purpose.
“Who we are, what we become, results from choice. You had to choose this path, Kiden. If you had chosen another, I would have made adjustments. But this – this moment – is yours,” she says. She senses Kiden wants to hit her. Go ahead, she says. Put a bruise on her face, if she can. Kiden backs down. Sniper Chick calls her a fast learner, one who possesses the most basic instinct of every living creature: survival. Kiden clearly wants to live. Kiden insists she only wants to help her friend. The woman tells her friends can be replaced. After all, everyone gets used; it’s only a matter of how, and how much. The way she sees it, her job is to teach Kiden the skills she needs to take advantage of that inevitable exchange of power.
Kiden curses at her, and says she doesn’t even know why this woman wants to help her. Whipping back around, Sniper Chick grabs Kiden by the chin and tells her she is helping her because it’s her job. She breaks people in; she makes new people out of their old, useless shells. Kiden elbows the woman in the neck, but the attack proves futile. Sniper Chick grabs her by the hair, puts her in a chokehold, and plunges a loaded syringe into her neck. “I’m going to break you, little girl,” she says. “I’m going to break you all.” Kiden, foaming at the mouth, collapses. Sniper Chick gets back on her cell phone and tells her boss the job is done; they can now bring the others in.
Much later, Bobby Soul slowly regains consciousness on an operating table. As his vision returns, he begins seeing a surgeon, and the menacing Sniper Chick. They discuss how to keep him restrained; Sniper Chick advises the doctor to keep the dosage high, so Bobby cannot escape. She gives him some orders on how to run his trial before she notices Bobby waking up. Hello, she says. She welcomes him to his last moment of consciousness before he transforms into a new man. “Bobby Soul. Man of souls. So tightly wound. So in control,” she says. As she exits the room, she tells Bobby she intends to have fun with both him and his little brother. She will return when they are both primed.
Tatiana, meanwhile, wakes up on a regal-looking bench in a gentlemen’s lounge. Someone approaches and offers her a glass of red wine, for her headache. Tatiana turns and sees the speaker: the Sniper Chick, dressed in a white business suit, with a black undershirt and a blood-red necktie. In one hand, she holds Tatiana’s drink, and in the other, Lil Bro. She tells Tatiana to take the drink before she drops the boy. Tatiana asks who she is, but instead of answering, the woman tells Tatiana what she knows about her and her mutant abilities. Where is Bobby, Tatiana asks? The woman informs her that Bobby, like Kiden, is undergoing treatment. Tatiana will undergo the same, depending on the outcome of their conversation.
Suddenly, Tatiana notices her former teacher, Ms. Palmer, chained to a nearby lounge chair. After checking on her, she asks why they did this to her. They did what was necessary, the woman insists. Bait, after all, only works if it has value to the prey. Bait, Tatiana asks? Does that mean this entire thing was a trap to lure in her and her friends? Why? They don’t even know each other!
The well-dressed woman tells Tatiana she need not know who she is, only what she does. She hurts people, in order to make them stronger… and a little hurt can go a long way. Does Tatiana realize she is a mutant, the Sniper Chick asks? And not just a mutant, but a mutant in a world where mutants are quickly going extinct? Does she understand how rare she has become? All over the world, people are placing bounties on the heads of mutant children, especially ones without families. Their power is a commodity; if Tatiana refuses to take control of it, someone else will. “Your fate is inevitable, little mutant,” the woman says. “Everything you love will be taken from you. Again. Unless you listen to me very closely.”
The Sniper Chick turns and paces around the room. What she offers, she says, is an opportunity to prepare for the inevitable, and, in doing so, reserve a life of comfort and safety for her future self. In a sense, she offers Tatiana freedom: a chance to survive on her own terms. Tatiana, however, is not convinced. This woman kidnapped her and wants to use her for her powers. That’s not freedom! That kind of survival doesn’t even sound appealing!
Tatiana may feel that way now, Sniper Chick says, but she would change her mind if she knew the alternative. She runs her fingers suggestively through Lil Bro’s curly hair. Tatiana asks her not to hurt him. Nonsense, the Sniper Chick says. She doesn’t hurt potential assets; she grooms them. She assumes this boy will eventually manifest some sort of mutant power, like his older brother, and has no problem waiting. Horrified, Tatiana acquiesces.
Having broken her captive, the Sniper Chick turns to leave. She asks Tatiana to think about their conversation, and what she said. Maybe something good will come out of it for her teacher as well, she says. Tatiana doubts it. Besides, she says, she and her friends were never given a choice in anything. “There’s always a choice,” Sniper Chick says as she leaves. “Choices are who we become.”
In the hallway, the ghost of Kiden’s father, internally agreeing with Sniper Chick’s statement on choice, approaches her and tells her the boy is ready. Her orders were to begin with Kiden, she says. The ghost says nothing; Sniper Chick yields and agrees to do as he wishes. We forget the good choices. We take them for granted, he thinks. But the bad choices… those linger. They eat at us. They murder. I made a bad choice, long ago. A bad choice, for a good reason.
He phases through the wall and into Kiden’s holding cell. Inside, she lies on an operating table, dressed in a hospital gown, shackled and unconscious. Now, it is time to pay, he thinks as he reaches out and takes his daughter’s hand. “Sweetheart. I’m here now,” he says. I love you. Remember that, if you ever forgive me. I love you, forever.


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

[Assistant]
Untitled
Are you comfortable? Sniper Chick asks. An unconscious Bobby Soul lies strapped to an operating table, his body plugged in to several electrodes and IV lines. Perhaps some refreshments before we start. A surgeon draws a drug out of a vial and injects Bobby. His eyes suddenly open wide; he clenches his teeth. In his mind’s eye, he sees himself plunging into the depths of his own pupil, eventually reaching the end of the blackness by smashing into a concrete pad.
The speaker continues, laying out the rules of conduct for the organization, and imploring the need for professionalism in this line of work. There are things to remember, if you are to become a professional. We honor our contracts. We treat our clients with respect. We are good to each other. In return for these simple obligations, we live well. But here’s the rub, sweet thing. If you do not meet your obligations... if you do not follow the simple rules of conduct and behave as a professional... our professional... we will scrub you. We will hurt you. We will kill you.
Bobby picks himself up and looks at his new surroundings, dumbfounded. He sees an urban environment centered on a red and white-striped silo with a silly cartoon cat’s head resting at the top. He hears something approaching from behind, and turns, seeing a digitized, stylized version of his little brother. Lil Bro gestures for Bobby to turn around. He does, and sees an angry mob of cartoon figures with pitchforks and clubs. Bobby reaches down and lifts Lil Bro into his arms. He runs, but finds his path blocked by a wrought-iron gate. The mob approaches. Bobby is cornered. He tries to fight them off, but the mob overpowers him and snatches Lil Bro from his grip. One of the kidnappers suddenly transforms into a digitized version of Bobby. This imposter lifts his weapon, a crowbar, and brings it down over Lil Bro’s head. The head shatters; Bobby screams. Then everything goes black.
Understand?
Tatiana Caban suddenly snaps to attention. The audio cassette player in the lounge finishes its message with an offer of milk and cookies. Sniper Chick approaches and hits its stop button, puts an end to the recording, but continues conversing with it anyway. Tatiana calls her crazy; Sniper Chick implies Tatiana is crazy too. Tatiana denies it.
Abruptly, Sniper Chick whips out a pistol, points it at the young mutant, and tells her she can either choose to live, or choose to die. The choice is simple. To emphasize her point, she fires the gun at the ground next to Tatiana’s feet. Tatiana screams; the bullet ricochets off the floor and moves past Sniper Chick's face, grazing her cheek.
She reaches down, grabs Tatiana by the wrist, and forces the gun into her hand. Time to decide, she says, turning the gun toward Tatiana's head. Will she live, or die? Stepping back, Sniper Chick spreads her arms wide, as if to invite an attack. Blood drips down the side of her bullet-scarred face. She asks her again: live or die? Tatiana begins to cry. She struggles to decide. Sniper Chick lurches forward and throws her arms on either side of Tatiana's chair. Well which is it, she asks? Tatiana looks her in the eye, raises the gun, and pulls the trigger. The back of Sniper Chick's head explodes outward, splattering the room with blood and bits of brain.
Tatiana opens her eyes. “Good. You have backbone,” the supposedly dead woman says. The startled girl spins around and sees her nemesis still standing. She just killed her, Tatiana says! Duly noted, Sniper Chick says, and without regret, to boot. She assumes Tatiana will try to kill her again. Tatiana raises the pistol again and fires it at Sniper Chick's face. This time, when Tatiana drops the hammer, nothing happens. Sniper Chick doesn't flinch. She continues speaking as if uninterrupted. The drugs gave her enough room to play around in Tatiana's mind, she says. However, everything Tatiana did was of her own free will, including her two attempts to murder her captor just now. The next time she pulls the trigger on a gun, she won't even think about it. Although Tatiana refutes what this means, the well-dressed woman insists that the young girl is an easy killer; she even likes blood.
She wipes the streak of blood from her face and begins to leave. She will have someone bring Tatiana milk and cookies as a reward for her good behavior. If she continues to behave so well, maybe she will get to see Ms. Cameron Palmer again... while she still lives. Sniper Chick leaves. The terrified Tatiana averts her eyes to the floor, and cannot help but notice the drops of blood the woman left behind.
Some things are out of our control. And sometimes what we control, we destroy.
Kiden wakes up on a cold concrete floor, clothed only in a towel. She sees her former teacher Ms. Palmer lying face-down in a pool of blood, her neck contorted in an unspeakable manner. Cameron Palmer speaks and tells Kiden this is her fault. Please don't say that, Kiden says, beginning to cry. Two sets of hands reach down, bind Cameron's hands, and hold a knife to her throat. Through it all, she insists Kiden is to blame. Kiden screams as she watches the strangers slit her teacher's throat. Sobbing hysterically, she crawls over to Ms. Palmer's body, through the pools of blood amassing on the floor, and checks for sings of life. She begs her not to leave again.
Sniper Chick, still dressed in her white pant-suit with stiletto-heeled boots, approaches the groveling Kiden and mocks her begging. Without hesitating, Kiden grabs the kitchen knife from the floor, stands up, and stabs Sniper Chick in the shoulder. She is horrified to see the person she stabbed is actually her good friend Tatiana Caban. As the gravity of what she has just done begins to sink in, Bobby Soul approaches from behind and punches Kiden in the face. She falls to the ground. He kneels down and grips her throat. They died because of her, he shouts! Each of them had a life before, and now, because of Kiden, they're dead!
“Without you, they would have been dead anyway,” a familiar voice says. Kiden looks over and sees the specter of her father gently patting Lil Bro on the head. Officer Nixon tells his daughter she gave her friends the best things for which anyone can ask. She gave them time, and new opportunities. She gave them He smiles and asks her to wake up.
Kiden opens her eyes in her dreary cell, still chained to the operating table. Her father stands over her. Although he resembles a corpse, he retains the gentle glow in his eyes. Kiden tells her dad he could have warned her. Mr. Nixon insists she wouldn't have listened. She would have liked hearing about this situation.
The cell door opens; Sniper Chick steps in. She calls Mr. Nixon a liar and reminds him he said he wouldn't interrupt Kiden's session. He reminds her she said she wouldn't start with Kiden. Sniper Chick insists she hasn't yet; however, she gave Mr. Nixon his alone time and doesn't care if he wasted it. “Little Kiden Nixon,” Sniper Chick begins, “...do you know what your daddy has done? Do you know why he conspired to bring you here?” Kiden tells her to go to hell. Sniper Chick smirks; she realizes Officer Nixon still hasn't told his daughter how he saved her life. Angered, Mr. Nixon asks the woman to leave. She acquiesces, granting him ten more minutes with his daughter, and steps out into the hall.
A fierce right-hook takes her by surprise. Sniper Chick looks up to see Bobby Soul and Lil Bro standing with Tatiana, who now bears a striking similarity to Sniper Chick herself. The transfigured Tatiana shakes out her fist and glares at her former captor. Sniper Chick cannot help but wonder how they caught her off guard, but then realizes the key: the boy. Mr. Nixon told her Lil Bro had no powers; he broke his word! Mr. Nixon thinks otherwise. Meanwhile, one of Lil Bro’s astral projections – a large, serpentine dragon –slinks around and locks eyes with Sniper Chick. Then, it opens its jaws wide and clamps down on her back. It disappears, and she slumps to the floor, a bloodied, decapitated heap. Tatiana looks on in horror. Bobby Soul averts his brother's eyes. Kiden says “dude”.
With their primary obstacle removed, the kids hurry to release Kiden from her bonds. Kiden, meanwhile, continues her conversation with her father. “What did she mean you made a bargain? What did you do?” she asks. Mr. Nixon tells her he did what he had to do in order to save Kiden's life.
Tatiana, assuming Kiden directed the question at her, also answers. She says that although she knows nothing about a bargain, she managed to get enough of the deranged woman's blood in her to absorb her memories of where she stored Kiden, Bobby, and Lil Bro. She also discovered where they imprisoned Ms. Palmer.
Kiden asks her dad to tell her the truth about the bargain. He refuses; she will hate him when she learns. “What did you do?” she snaps. Mr. Nixon explains she can never comprehend the horrible things that would have happened to her, had he not intervened. This will change everything for her. “So you did... you did help cause this. You hurt my friends, you hurt me—”
“I love you. I did all of this because I love you, and you were going to die, otherwise,” Mr. Nixon says.
Tatiana, walking with Kiden's arm slung over her shoulder, guides her across the slippery, blood-strewn floor. Suddenly tempted by the blood, Tatiana licks her lips. Bobby notices her getting distracted and grabs her shoulder. He asks her to focus. Kiden, meanwhile, calls out to her dad. They were all going to die, Mr. Nixon reiterates. Bobby grabs Kiden by the shoulder and asks her to snap out of it. There is nothing there, he says; she is talking to air.
The kids navigate the halls in search of Ms. Palmer. Bobby comments on the utter emptiness of the building. It's like no one else is even there, he says. Tatiana assures him they are not alone. Continuing, Bobby wonders if the building was emptied out intentionally, possibly by the sniper woman. She didn't do this, Tatiana says, still channeling the woman in question. She can see that much, Bobby asks? Tatiana tells him she sees enough.
Using her borrowed knowledge of the building's layout, she quickly leads them to Ms. Palmer's location. They swing open the door and are assaulted by a pungent array of stale human smells. They step into the darkened room. Ms. Palmer has obviously been tortured; Tatiana asks whether it's wise to move her. Do they have a choice, Bobby asks? They can't leave her in this place. Kiden reaches down and wakes up their former teacher. She tells her everything will be okay. Cameron recoils from her touch. “You,” she says. “Get away from me. Don't touch me. Get away! This is all your fault, Kiden!” This accusation hits Kiden hard; her jaw goes slack, and she stares at her only role model in shocked horror. Tatiana asks if Ms. Palmer was brainwashed or something. Actually, she might be on to something, Bobby Soul says.
They free Ms. Palmer and escape from the building with her safely in Bobby's arms. Officer Nixon, waiting in a control room, observes their exit via security cameras. A mysterious man in an expensive suit, sitting in a lounge chair while sipping a cappuccino, asks Mr. Nixon if he is satisfied. Kiden's alive, Mr. Nixon answers, but he will only consider their bargain met when she makes it to old age. Besides, he asks if a father is ever truly satisfied. “I suppose not,” the cappuccino-sipping man says. “A man tries so hard. You build your children young, from the bottom up. You present them with possibilities and hard choices, and then force those choices. Until one day your children... become something else. Something useful.” He raises his cup to his lips and takes a drink.
Kiden’s father cannot help but note the detachment in the man's tone. After all, Mr. Nixon just made Lil Bro kill the man's daughter. Doesn't that grieve him? It was worth it, the man says, to see what the boy could do. Besides, he can make other children; Mr. Nixon cannot. They have different goals, the mysterious man says. Mr. Nixon agrees; he only wanted to set his daughter on the right path, so she stayed alive. “And so you have,” the man says. Now, he wants to know of the future, of what Kiden and her friends will do to change things. Then, they will plan how they can help them.
On the security monitor, Kiden Nixon, Tatiana Caban, Lil Bro, and Bobby Soul, carrying Cameron Palmer in his arms, step outside the building. A moment later, they’re gone. They arrive at the hospital and drop the unconscious Ms. Palmer by the doors. Will she be okay, Tatiana asks? She's still alive, Bobby answers. That isn't what Tatiana meant, but Bobby knows. It's the best answer he can give.
Tatiana asks her friends what they intend to do now. All Kiden knows is that she spent years trying to kill herself in various ways because of what happened to her father. But, she got better. She forged a new life, and found friends who trusted her. She moved on. What do they do?now, she asks. They keep surviving. She grabs their hands, and the tight-knit group of friends walks forward into the motionless streets of New York City.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

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One month ago:The dark sky hangs over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Nova Scotia, Scotland. A beam of light suddenly appears, breaking the darkness, before it disappears, plummeting into the dark waters.
Three weeks ago:Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada: it is night once again, and several fishing boats are docked near shore – where a fish swims to the edge of the water – then walks out onto the water on strange purple tentacles.
A dog barks at the creature and runs towards it – but the fish opens its mouth, and purple tentacles appear, wrapping around the dog, who yelps. A man's voice can be heard, calling the dog Cooper. 'Where'd that damn dog run off to?' he wonders, as the dog is covered in the strange purple tentacles.
Present:Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada:
It's nighttime as Old Man Logan pulls up to a gas station on his motorcycle. 'Evening' the middle-aged woman behind the counter remarks as Logan enters the store. 'Garage closed?' Logan asks. The woman asks him if he is having problems with his bike. Logan explains that he was looking to drop it off for a tune-up and then pick it up in a day or two. The woman informs Logan that the mechanic, Dougie, is in until the morning, and that he can bring his bike in by around nine. Logan pours himself some coffee and tells the woman that he won't be here, and asks if there is any chance he can leave it with her, adding that he will pay up front if that makes it easier. 'I don't see why not' the woman responds as she rings up the coffee and some coffee crunch bars that Logan takes to the counter. 'Appreciate it' Logan replies. As Logan heads towards the door, the woman asks him if he needs her to call him a cab or anything. Logan tells her no thanks, as he has a ride.
The woman looks out the gas station window in shock as Logan walks towards a jet that hovers low to the ground.
'Evening, Logan' James MacDonald Hudson a.k.a. Guardian greets him as he hovers alongside the jet, waiting for Logan. 'Mac' Logan calls back.
Inside the jet, Eugene Milton Judd a.k.a. Puck sits at the controls, while the goddess Narya a.k.a. Snowbird leans against the control panel. 'You bring me my chocolate bars?' Judd asks as Logan approaches him, handing him a bag containing twelve Coffee Crunch bars, just like he asked. 'Don't eat 'em all at once, Puck. You're likely to give yourself diabetes' Logan remarks. 'Worth it' Judd smiles as he opens one of the bars.
Snowbird and Logan embrace, and Snowbird tells him that it has been too long 'You have no idea' Logan replies, before Mac thanks Logan for meeting them along the way. Logan and Mac shake hands and Logan points out that it is easier for him, adding that he doesn't even know where Alpha Flight are based out of these days. 'Yeah, it's a little complicated' Mac mumbles. 'It always is' Logan agrees, before asking if Shaman is around, as he had some business with him.
'Right here, Logan' Dr Michael Twoyoungmen a.k.a. Shaman calls out, before announcing that he has prepared the lab. Logan follows Shaman into the lab, and sits on an examination table as Shaman informs him that he talked to Cecilia Reyes about his condition. 'Thought the point of a second opinion was a fresh set of eyes' Logan replies. Shaman consults a clipboard and explains that the more he knows, the better informed his second opinion will be. He informs Logan that he concurs with Cecilia Reyes' diagnosis that the adamantium coating of his bones is poisoning his system. Shaman explains that the adamantium has surpassed its half-life and is breaking down at an increasing pace and is releasing more toxins into Logan's system, which alone should be enough to kill him. 'But?' Logan asks. 'There is no but. This new agent that you have introduced into your system... this... Regenix... it's taxing your body beyond what it is capable of recovering from. Bending it to the point that it will, at any day, break' Shaman tells Logan.
'And there's no way to reverse it?' Logan asks, hanging his head. Shaman sits down on a chair opposite Logan and tells him that other than stripping the adamantium from his body, which is something he doubts Logan could survive in his condition, he is afraid not. 'Any non-science, non-traditional medicine options? If someone could look at this in another way, it would be you' Logan points out. But Shaman tells Logan that this is not a problem that can be solved with Sarcee medicine, that this is a problem that was created by science and then made worse by more science – so mysticism cannot repair it, as much as he wishes it might. Shaman reveals that he has meditated on this and that he has communed with his ancestors, hoping in his heart of hearts that he might have been wrong – but they all tell him the same – that it is time for Logan to prepare for what comes next. Shaman reminds Logan that he does not belong in this world, so he must find his way home so that when the time comes his spirit can find its way to where it belongs. 'Though... as I tell you this... I suspect this might be what you wanted' Shaman adds, but Logan says nothing.
Shortly, the jet descends in a field at Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia. Mac leads everyone out of the jet as he reports that last month they received reports of an unidentified flying object that landed just off the coast, but unfortunately at the time, most of the team was tied up with another mission, but as there were no further alerts, it was not treated as an emergency. Alpha Flight and Logan walk down the street which is covered in the strange alien purple tentacles. Houses and cars lay wrecked under the purple mess as Mac reveals that in that time, all 500 residents of  Shag Harbour vanished, with no calls for help and no reports from within the city, so police were sent to investigate and they vanished, too. 'Every responder has disappeared. That's when they finally decided to call us in' Mac declares. Mac points out that they are obviously dealing with some sort of plant invasion here, but how that relates to the missing, they don't know yet. He adds that the best case is, they find those 500-plus missing people and go home – worst case is they find out what happened to them and put an end to whatever this threat is. He instructs the others to split up and search, and to report anything they find via comms.
Logan and Puck walk towards a house, covered in the tentacle-like substance, and Logan asks Puck how space is going for him. 'It's all a little up in the air right now. Pun intended' Puck replies, adding that he has no idea what is going on with the space program, which is fine by him, as he is happy to be back and have his feet on the ground 'Yeah, space was never my cup of tea, either' Logan replies. Puck adds that the whole time he was up there, the one thing he missed – more than Coffee Crunch – was being close to nature, the trees and the grass. 'The smell of it. Breathe it in and you just feel... alive. That's something they were never able to replicate up there with their recirculated air. I missed it' Puck remarks. As they start exploring the house, Judd adds that right at this moment, he isn't so sure. 'How about you? You been holding up ok?' Judd asks as he shines his flashlight around in the darkness, missing a dog that is tied up under the purple tentacles. 'No. I'm dying' Logan replies.
Puck looks at Logan in shock, and asks 'Wait... you mean dying dying?' Logan tells him that it looks like that, adding that he wasn't completely sure, but Shaman confirmed it for him on the way over here. 'You can fight it, can't you?' Puck asks, putting a hand on Logan's shoulder, he remarks that he has access to some of the most brilliant minds in science. 'There's gotta be a cure for whatever -' Puck begins, but Logan interrupts him and points out that there is no cure for being old. 'You're kidding me? You know how many times Steve Rogers -' Puck begins, to which Logan points out that he has been around a lot longer that Steve, before admitting that he is not interested in fixing this, and that it is a relief.
Logan looks down as he tells Puck that he ain't been himself lately, that he ain't got the fight, his stamina has bottomed out and he keeps trying to push himself, but he is just so tired. 'And people around me have been paying the price because of it' he remarks, before telling Puck that he misses his wife and kids, and he just wants to be with them. Logan walks out of the house and Puck looks concerned – but before he can act, Guardian speaks to him over the comm-system, and reports that they have found something at the church.
The church and graveyard around it are covered in a mess of purple vines, or tentacles. Logan and Judd join Mac, Snowbird and Shaman inside the church, where Mac points at a circular mass, made out of the purple matter, with bones and other remains floating in it. Guardian declares that every since vine that runs through the town leads here, so whatever is happening, this is what is causing it. 'Guess we know what happened to the people of Shag Harbour' Judd remarks, before Logan asks if there is any way of getting them out. 'Shaman, you can control plants. Can't you -' Logan begins, but Shaman points out that it is extraterrestrial in origin, so his powers do not work on it. He adds that the people, the animals, seem to be its food source, and that it needs organic material, so it is too late to dave them 'Those poor creatures' Snowbird gasps, looking at the remains of a moose.
Guardian burns part of the tentacle away, and collects the specimen in a vial. He instructs Shaman and Snowbird to keep an eye on this, whatever it is, and for Logan and Puck to keep looking, to increase their perimeter, as he is not ready to give up on finding survivors. Guardian heads towards the door and reports that he will analyze this sample on the ship's lab, as he doesn't want to start blasting this thing before they have an idea of what it is they are blasting – for all they know, destroying it could release spores, and Lord knows how far that could spread. 'Radio if you need anything' he adds. Puck waves goodbye to Shaman and Snowbird. 'Have fun babysitting the Little Shop of Horrors' he jokes.
Outside, Puck and Logan follow another trail of vines, and Logan tells Puck 'What I told you earlier, keep it to yourself'. He adds that the last thing he needs is everyone treating him differently, pushing him to find a way to fix this – he doesn't want that, he wants to do this on his own terms. 'It's my time' Puck adds. Flashlights beaming through the night, Puck suggests to Logan that they could be fussing over him because they care. 'You can't take that from them' he points out. 'Just... keep it to yourself. This is my choice' Logan points out. They stop at a building, and Puck tells him to table the death talk for a second. 'You seeing this?' he asks, as they notice none of the vines have entered the building. 'Yeah… this is the only building that the vines avoided' Logan declares, asking why. 'Only one way to find out' Puck suggests as he starts to open the door. 'Puck!' Logan exclaims, as he is suddenly dragged upwards by  one of the vines, which wraps around him. 'The hell?' Puck asks as he is suddenly caught by one of the tentacles as well.
'It burns. Why the hell does it burn?' Puck calls out as he struggles to break free. Logan pops his claws and, calling Puck “Short Stuff” tells him to hold on, that he will get him out. Logan slices his claws through the vines, and frees himself. He slashes his way through more vines as he rushes over to Puck, who is still struggling to break free. 'Promise me...if I get killed by these plants...tell everyone that I died...fighting Thanos' Puck calls out. 'No one's dying' Logan assures Puck, when suddenly, 'Stand back!' someone shouts. 'Who -' Logan begins as he turns to see a man emerging from the building, blasting the vines with some sort of foam. 'Cutting it won't do no good!' the man calls out, as the foam reaches the tentacles holding Puck back, and he falls to the ground. Logan helps Puck up, 'I swear...I live through this...I'm becoming vegetarian' Puck mutters, adding that he will get his revenge by eating all the plants. 'Hurry!' the man shouts, beckoning for Logan and Puck to follow him. Logan helps Puck across to the building, and they enter after the man.
Logan closes the door behind him and finds over a dozen civilians inside the building. He thanks them for the save, and asks them if they have been hiding out here the last month. 'Yeah' the man who rescued them confirms. An older man explains that the thing came at night and started attacking them, that some of them tried running, but it was no use, as it got them, so the rest id in here, and they have been fighting it off with weed killer. 'That's what this is? Weed killer?' Logan asks, looking at the cannister the man who rescued him was using. 'Figures' Logan mutters, before the man tells him that it only keeps the vines away, it doesn't kill it, just slows it – and he just used the last of it to save them. 'Great' Logan hangs his head, before the old man tells him that he hopes they have an alternate plan, because he thinks they just pissed it off, as the vines start to rise upwards.
Back in the church, the vines begin to move as well.  'What's...' Snowbird begins, as Shaman declares that they need to move. They run towards the exit, but several vines ensare Snowbird. To free herself, she shifts her form into hundreds of arctic moths, while the vines take Shaman as well, he struggles, unable to free himself. Snowbird switches to a polar bear form and lunges  forward, tearing through the vines, she frees Shaman, then carries him across the church, while calling out to Guardian, Logan and Puck over the comm, telling them that if they can read her, this thing is live, it is moving.
'Is that a polar bear?' the old man inside the building asks as he sees the polar bear run across the field. 'That polar bear's a friend' Logan tells him. Puck opens the door, and calls out to Snowbird: 'This way!' he shouts. Snowbird dodges more vines, then falls in through the open door, reverting to her default form in the process, safe along with Shaman. Logan looks back out the window, 'What's it doing?' he asks. The old man tells him that he doesn't know, that he has never seen it do this before.
Suddenly, the vines inside the church burst upwards, their mass increased, they break through the church. Logan radios Guardian, telling him that if he is still in his lab, he might want to drag himself away from the microscope. Mac looks up from his microscope and asks Logan what is happening. 'Take a look out the window and see for yourself. Looks like we got ourselves...a problem' Logan tells Mac, who looks out of the jet, and utters 'My God' as he sees the church has been completely engulfed by the strange alien plant....